Bond’s ‘mission impossible’ in Cameron Highlands!
Published on: Saturday, November 29, 2014
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But to the real Bond, that’s his trademark success, because that’s what spies are supposed to do – working under total concealment of their true identities and purpose to gain access to valuable secret information about the enemy for their masters to make critical decisions.
In 1948, the real Bond virtually turned communist infested Cameron Highlands into his high-flying espionage playing field.
And 66 years later, the Daily Express has got a star witness in none other than the real Bond’s son – Derek Emerson-Elliot, a barrister, to testify to the fact that his real Bond father kept him and his siblings completely in the dark about his spy job, until 1990.
Stunned by this revelation, the Emerson-Elliots had gone back to beautiful Cameron Highlands with a revolutionised perspective about their father.
The best part is the landmark mansions where communist and the real Bond operated from are still there!
That provides a living historical heritage that can potentially rock the world of James Bond mystique from screen idol to true Bond espionage tourism that could benefit a currently landslide and dam-burst embattled Cameron Highlands.
Son’s witness story of the Bond saga
Here is son Derek’s story, from the perspective of a young boy then.
The real James Bond checked his family of five right into the heart of the Malayan Communist Party headquarters in Cameron Highlands – Moonlight bungalow, in early 1948, at the height of a communist uprising against the colonial government.
That’s the first baffling behaviour – taking an insane risk. Of course, the young Derek didn’t know.
The trigger to Malayan Emergency
The Malayan Communist Party was founded in 1930.
From Day One, the colonial Government deemed it an illegal organisation, because of diametrically opposed political and economic ideologies.
But when Japan invaded Malaya on December 8, 1942, these two sworn enemies became expedient friends and comrades united in arms against the Japanese occupation, especially after the fall of Singapore on February 15, 1942, resulting in a build up of 40,000 soldiers and fat funds.
But with the sudden and shock defeat of Japan on August 15, 1945, that expedient British-communist co-operation could not withstand their sharp ideological differences.
Within a matter of a month, British praise for the contribution of MCP turned into a persuasion to disband which the MCP reluctantly accepted but rank-and-file anger compounded by post-war economic hardships sent the communists back to violent guerilla warfare, with ambushes and attacks.
The last straw
The last straw came when the guerrillas killed three European planters.
In response, the colonial government declared an emergency on June 12, 1948.
So, to this day, the MCP is most famous for its role in the Malayan Emergency.
On July 27, 1948, the MCP was officially outlawed.
It was in this turbulent context in post MCP disbandment, its subsequent resort to violence and emergency that the real James Bond – a British Secret Service Mi6 spy whose secret code number is BB 007, was sent to the Cameron Highlands for what shall we call it – Mission Impossible?
The world of espionage
Spies are not allowed to know other spies, so that just in case they are captured, they cannot leak secrets on who their other fellow spies are.
Each spy reports to just one guy – his/her controller.
Since Lynette has said Ian Fleming – fellow spy and author who created fictional character James Bond in his book, Casino Royale, is the ‘opposite’ of BB 007, Ian Fleming was presumably the controller of BB 007.
Indeed, historian Lynette says she is “certain” she has pinned BB 007 down to Denis Emerson-Elliot – a fake name for a Mi6 spy .
It is significant that the real Bond – Denis Emerson-Elliot, a ‘kwai-lo’ who spoke fluent Malay and Cantonese – the dialect of most Malayan Chinese.
That linguistic charm must have been one big plus for instant heart-winning friendship and admiration, especially to the menial ranks of the communities!
It would certainly been a big help to gather valuable secret information from human sources in the Malayan context.
Real spies
But real spies are not only trained to gather information, they are also trained with the deadly skill to kill anyone deemed dangerous to national security.
On that note, the real Bond, who assumed a fake name Denis Emerson-Elliot, infiltrated the Cameron Highland regiment ranks of MCP, operating from the forbidding, impenetrable jungles of the Central Range.
Denis Emerson-Elliot drove up to Cameron Highlands on the cover of a family man.
With him were sons Derek, Tony, daughter Penny and Russian wife Nona Orlov whose name had been changed to Norma Emerson-Elliot, to pose as an ‘English rose’. All the children were in the dark that lasted for decades that their father was a British Secret Service Mi6 spy bearing his secret code number BB 007, until 1990 when the truth was finally told.
BB 007 did his job.
Chin Peng’s trust on real Bond not surprising
Basically, real Bond managed to fool Chin Peng’s men into believing he was for them.
In some ways, Chin Peng’s trust was not surprising, because Chin Peng did have a real war-time mutual working relationship with clandestine British militaries in their hour of need.
Before he ever became a Secretary General of the Malayan Communist Party in 1947, Chin Peng, who was a senior officer of MCP’s Fifth Regiment in Perak, was the MCP’s Principal liaison with Force 136 – a group of British commandos who infiltrated Malaya in 1943 during the Japanese occupation.
To fight a common enemy, the British military even hastily trained about 150 MCP cadres in guerilla warfare in the 101st station, in Singapore, when Japanese invasion of Malaya became imminent in late1941, with a promise of arms and other material supplies.
So, although these British trained MCP cadres were crudely armed, they dispersed and mounted harassment and later became the nuclei of the MCP regiments!
The irony is, real Bond, Denis Emerson-Elliot, was given the unsavoury task to undo what his Government had done!
Daily Express’ exclusive
So folks, the Daily Express gets this exclusive privilege to interview Derek , son of the real Bond, thanks to Lynette who arranged it all. Given her rapid-fire reading, research, writing and oratory skills all rolled into one, noted Australian historian Lynette has come out with this breaking news that she is sure that she had finally tracked the decades-old hidden identity of BB 007, to Mi6 secret agent, Denis Emerson-Elliot, who died in 1997.
Her intriguing exclusive story of discovery was published in the Daily Express last Sunday.
Here, we publish son Derek’s perspective of the real James Bond saga, to prove beyond doubt this is a real Bond story!
Fittingly so, because Lynette and Derek have joined forces to co-author an e-book entitled ‘In the Mouth of the Tiger’, to lend credence to Denis’ adventurous life.‘In the Mouth of the Tiger’ is ‘faction’, Lynette insists, a fictionalised story based on real people and concerning real events.
Lynette said the title of the book is taken from a Temiar saying that ‘the safest place in the jungle is in the mouth of the tiger’.
But however vivid and compelling Lynette’s journey of discovery of the real Bond story is, my first instinctive question to her was: Is Derek still alive?
When she said yes, I knew instantly that we must get Derek to talk.
Thanks to Derek, he has done that.
Derek quickly confirmed that much of the action in the book and what Lynette told the Daily Express last Sunday (Nov 23), actually occurred.
Absolutely no idea father was a spy
“I was nine years old when we decided to move to Cameron Highlands in early 1948,” Derek said.
“But all the while, I had absolutely no idea that my father was a secret spy, neither did I know that my mother was Russian, and that her identity as an English girl born in Somerset Scotland was a cover for her true identity,” Derek said.
“As far as I was aware, the family moved to Cameron Highlands to enjoy the healthy coolness of Malaya’s premier ‘hill station’,” Derek remembered thinking.
“With Lynette’s help, I have pieced together the real reason for our move – which took place just before the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), who took to the jungle again (as they did during the Japanese occupation) in the bitter and bloody uprising against post-war British rule, what is now known as ‘the Malayan Emergency’,” Derek said.
“The Malayan Communist Party had fought the Japanese during World War 2, often fighting alongside British jungle fighters. Their efforts had won them wide acclaim.
So high were Communist stocks in Malaya that the MCP was poised to win the first Malayan General Election on July 27, 1955, the only Malayan general election before independence on August 31, 1957, something that Whitehall was utterly determined to prevent, ” Derek believed.
Father’s job – push MCP back to jungle: Derek
“We believe that my father’s job was to lure the Communists back into their jungle insurrection,” Derek said.
“The reasoning was that once committed to the jungle, and to killing of innocent people, the mask would fall from the face of the MCP and it would be seen for what it was – a bandit organisation fighting to gain total control of Malaya,” Derek analysed.
As well, the day the Governor of Malaya declared the MCP an illegal organisation on July 27, 1948, which forced them to retreat to the jungle, it automatically precluded them from taking part in the next election for control of an independent Malaya, observed Julian Emerson-Ellliot, son of Derek.
Real Bond’s long link with MCP
“My father had had a long undercover association with the Malayan Communist Party, whose immediate post-war leader, Lai Teck, is now known to have been a British agent,” Derek continued.
The British, in fact, used Lai Teck as double agent to infiltrate the MCP, who even manoeuvred his way up to become its Secretary General, a terrible security breach which MCP didn’t seem to be aware of.
So true to what espionage experts know – infiltrate top ranks to get the most valuable secrets.
“Father managed to convince the MCP that he was on their side. They thought he was a double agent. Lynette and I both believe that he proved his credentials by betraying to the communists a Russian secret service agent, Lt Skripkin, who told the British Secret Service he wanted to defect all on his own,” Derek said.
“When his defection became known to Mi6 in Singapore, my father had to tell his KGB handler of the fact, in case the ‘defection’ was just a ploy to test whether or not my father was really on their side,” Derek explained. The man was subsequently executed.”
We also believe that the family moved to Cameron Highlands to stay in touch with the new MCP leader, Chin Peng, who had replaced Lai Teck in March 1947,” Derek said.
After the fall of Singapore on February 15, 1942, the Japanese arrested Lai Teck.
This time, Lai Teck became a Japanese agent.
Based on Lai Teck’s top secret information, the Japanese Army mounted a dawn raid on a secret MCP conference in Batu Caves in September 1942, and killed almost all of the 100 top leaders.
But this is treachery typical of spies.
By 1946, realising an impending move to investigate him for betrayal, Lai Teck fled Malaya with party funds.
Reeling from the shock, the MCP waited one full year to elect another Secretary General, in the person of 26-year old Chin Peng, then commander of the 5th Regiment, Perak.
The good old days of Cameron Highlands
The Cameron Highlands, long known as a ‘hill station’ in its hey days, was a small settlement established in the 1880s as a hot tropical weather resort, to allow mainly colonial administrators, affluent traders, tin miners, and rubber estate managers to escape from the heat and humidity of the lowlands.
“I remember Cameron Highlands was a beautiful place surrounded by jungle, jungle everywhere, with English-style bungalows scattered about a carefully maintained golf course.
“We drove up the mountain by car, arriving late in a cool, misty afternoon. Our hotel was the Smoke House Inn, a romantic mock-Tudor establishment on the edge of the golf course,” Derek recalled the terrific feeling with nostalgia.
“I remember as clearly as if it had been yesterday: the Devonshire tea awaiting us by crackling open fire and our parents’ instructions not to roam too far on the golf course because a mist had drifted in and if we got lost a tiger might eat us up,” Derek told Daily Express through an email.
The two ‘attractive bungalows’
“Two of the most attractive bungalows were Moonlight and Starlight, built at the end of a narrow road that curved up through thick jungle from the golf course.
“Moonlight was mock Tudor in style, and was surrounded by a magnificent rose-garden which gave off a glorious scent of roses (all organically grown those days) towards the end of the afternoon.
Starlight was alpine in character, constructed from granite rocks with a white stucco upper floor and verandas projecting out over the jungle,” Derek gets even more nostalgic.
Quick check-out from favourite Moonlight to Starlight
Cameron Highlands was paradise par-excellence!
“My brother Tony and sister Penny and I fell in love with Moonlight but, only a day or so after we moved in father moved us to Starlight, situated some 80 meters or so down the hill and hidden by a jungle-topped hillock, for some reason beyond my nine-year-old’s comprehension,” Derek remembers his puzzlement.
“Lynette and I now believe that this move was so that Chin Peng and his henchmen would be screened from any surprise visitors coming up our private road,” Derek analysed.
“I clearly remember the military field telephone strung between the two bungalows, with a phone in my father’s study that we children were absolutely banned from ever touching.”
“Just behind Starlight, virtually at the back door, the wilderness began – a deep jungle ravine where tigers prowled at night and secret trails led away to Sakai villages deep in the forest,” Derek said.
Malaya gripped in uprising
“But in 1948, there was suddenly another element of the wilderness about Cameron Highlands that had nothing to do with the resort’s exotic and colourful location,” Derek noted.
“Within days of my family’s arrival, the whole of Malaya was gripped by the Malaya Communist Party’s uprising. On Day One of the Emergency (declared on June 12, 1948, after three European planters had been killed), the MCP was outlawed (July 23,1948). Mi6 ploy had worked!”
The uprising seemed to seriously threaten the very existence of the Government of Malaya, particularly in the early months, Derek said.
Classic guerrilla warfare doomed
“It was a classic guerrilla war, with the communists operating largely from the jungle areas around Cameron Highlands, from where they ruthlessly attacked government forces’ rubber plantations, tin mines, police stations, railways, roads, and even innocent civilians,” Derek said.
“But it was doomed to fail. The jungle was, in fact, not a safe place for guerillas to operate.
It inhibits movement, restricts supply, and is physically straining on those unwise enough to try and use it for cover.”
But if the MCP guerillas were ruthless, how come Denis Emerson-Elliot who personified colonial exploitation, seemed so relaxed about exposing himself and family to deadly attacks?
For an explanation, Derek remembers his parents invoking power of the mystics.
“It seemed extraordinary that my father would deliberately place us in such danger,” he said.
“However, I was told by my parents at the time that our family had a private talisman, a tall, thin Chinese man called Ah Khow, who gave us immunity against the bandits.”
“They would tell us that Ah Khow was the chef at the Blue Cow Hotel, a resort hotel closed down by the security forces in early 1948 on suspicion of being involved with the terrorists.
“So you can imagine our mixed feelings when my father employed him as our cook – and he and his large family moved quietly into the servants’ quarters at the back of Starlight,” Derek remembered.
“Looking back, we strongly believe that Ah Khow was the family’s go-between with the MCP,” he said.
The real talisman
“With Ah Khow on ‘our’ side”, Derek told Daily Express, “we children felt immune from the violence and sudden death all about us. Little did we know that it was our father who was, having convinced the communists that he was on their side, our real talisman.
“While friends put sandbags around their doors and never moved far from home except in police-protected convoys, we lived a free and easy life, playing golf as a family on the unprotected golf course and even driving unescorted down the mountain.
On more than one occasion on the drives we came across silent, straggly lines of bandits moving along the Tapah-Tanah Rata road – only to see them swing their guns away from our distinctive black Wolsley at the last, tense moment,” Derek remembers.
Executing ‘defectors’, ‘running dogs’ at Moonlight
“My brother Tony, sister Penny and I lived a protected and happy life while not 80 meters from our house, the communists in Moonlight were carrying out murders – of ‘defectors’ and ‘running dogs’ – and burying the bodies in the beautiful rose garden!”
On hindsight, Derek now understood why his father checked them out of Moonlight almost as soon as he had checked them in, to Starlight. Moonlight was essentially MCP’s killing field.
“I don’t know the bodies, but both houses are still there,” said Derek, who had revisited the Cameron Highlands with his wife Anne, son Julian and family.
“They are part of a hotel, but Starlight is now known as Sunlight Bungalow,” he told Daily Express.
In 1967, Moonlight was in the news for an entirely different reason. It was the bungalow from which the Thai silk millionaire, and wartime American secret agent, Jim Thompson, disappeared!
The day the Ghurkas arrived
“In 1948, we children came home from school to find that we had been moved from Starlight to a cottage attached to the Cameron Highlands Hotel,” Derek said.
“The next morning, we woke up to find that the Ghurkas had set up camps around the house. Evidently, there had been a move against the terrorists in the Moonlight and
Starlight areas. A Ghurka pointed to the Starlight area and announced that patrols were out in the jungle ‘catching bandits’,” Derek recalled.
“From then on, the Ghurkas were always visible, trailing us children protectively to and from school, sitting outside our classrooms with machine guns across their knees, even following us down to the football field on sports afternoon. Unescorted family drives and walks, along with romps on the golf course, became a thing of the past,” Derek said.
Meaning betrayal of a trusting Ah Khow had completed.
BB 007 exits Cameron Highlands
The real spy with secret code BB 007 had done his job.
“We left the Cameron Highlands a few weeks after the Ghurkas arrived.
With the communists ousted from their stronghold, there was clearly no reason for father to remain. His contacts had all gone into hiding. He decided not to drive down the mountain in one of the heavily protected convoys. He said it was because convoys attracted attacks.
The fact is to his communist ‘friends’, he was untouchable.”
But here is a twist to the story.
“While driving through a rubber plantation outside Tapah we were shot at, one bullet striking the front right mud guard. My father stopped the car and began remonstrating with our unseen attackers in Cantonese and Malay.
The attack was not pressed home and we drove on, no worse for our adventure from the single bullet hole. Our talisman had protected us one last time.”
“The safest place in the jungle, for us, was indeed in ‘the mouth of the tiger’,” Derek said.
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