‘A very salutary effect’: The Counter-Terror Strategy in the Early Malayan Emergency, June 1948 to December 1949

Abstract

The counter-insurgency lessons commonly drawn from the Malayan Emergency ignore strategy in the opening phase or dismiss it as characterised by mistakes committed in a policy vacuum. This article argues that the British army pursued a deliberately formulated counter-terror strategy until circa December 1949, aiming to intimidate the civilian Chinese community into supporting the government. Mass arrests, property destruction, and forced population movement, combined with loose controls on lethal force, created a coercive effect. The consequences of these policies were mounting civilian casualties, which the government allowed to continue because its intelligence assessments suggested they were militarily effective.

Key Words:

• Counter-insurgency
• Malaya
• Brutality

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was given at the ‘Intelligence, Strategic Culture and Counterinsurgencies’ workshop, National Defense University, Washington DC on 11 June 2008. Thanks to Patrick Cronin and Huw Davies for arranging the event, and the participants for their remarks. Thanks to Manuel Bollag, Paul Dixon, David French, Karl Hack, Georgina Sinclair and Christian Tripodi for their comments on subsequent drafts. Errors remain the author's responsibility.

Notes

¹Examples include: David Ucko, ‘Countering Insurgents through Distributed Operations: Insights from Malaya 1948–1960’, The Journal of Strategic Studies 30/1 (Feb. 2007), 47–72; John Nagl, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam (London: Univ. of Chicago Press 2005).

²Ivan Arreguín-Toft, How the Weak Win Wars: A Theory of Asymmetric Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge UP 2005), 202; Alexander Downes, ‘Draining the Sea by Filling the Graves: Investigating the Effectiveness of Indiscriminate Violence as a Counterinsurgency Strategy’, Civil Wars 9/4 (Dec. 2007), 440.

³The tradition runs from Robert Thompson to Thomas Mockaitis to John Nagl. For a critique, see: Richard Popplewell, ‘“Lacking Intelligence”: Some Reflections on Recent Approaches to British Counter-insurgency, 1900–1960’, Intelligence and National Security 10/2 (Summer 1995), 336–52.

⁴Karl Hack, ‘“Iron Claws on Malaya”: The Historiography of the Malayan Emergency’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 30/1 (1999), 99–125.

⁵Stathis Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge UP 2006), 6–7.

⁶A helpful overview is contained in: Kalyvas, Logic of Violence, 52–86.

⁷Richard J. Aldrich, ‘“Grow Your Own”: Cold War Intelligence and History Supermarkets’, Intelligence and National Security 17/1 (Spring 2002), 135; Richard Aldrich, ‘Policing the Past: Official History, Secrecy and British Intelligence since 1945’, English Historical Review CXIX/483 (2004), 929.

⁸Manuel Bollag, ‘“For What and For Whom?” British and French Servicemen during the Wars of Decolonisation in Malaya and Indochina, 1945–1960’. PhD thesis (in progress), King's College London; Martin Thomas, ‘Insurgent Intelligence: Information Gathering and Anti-Colonial Rebellion’, Intelligence and National Security 22/1 (2007), 155–63; C.C. Chin and Karl Hack, Dialogues with Chin Peng: New Light on the Malayan Communist Party (Singapore: Singapore UP 2004).

⁹See Hack, ‘Iron Claws on Malaya’, for the periodisation.

¹⁰Colonial Office law and order files for 1948–49 were believed destroyed until recently. A.J. Stockwell, ‘Chin Peng and the Struggle for Malaya’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 16/3 (2006), 290.

¹¹Michael Howard, ‘Military History and the History of War’, in Williamson Murray and Richard Sinnreich (eds.), The Past as Prologue: The Importance of History to the Military Profession (Cambridge: Cambridge UP 2006), 13.

¹²Hack, ‘Iron Claws on Malaya’, 102.

¹³Stockwell, ‘Chin Peng’, 291.

¹⁴Anthony Short, The Communist Insurrection in Malaya 1948–1960 (London: Frederick Muller 1975), 161.

¹⁵It is difficult to find an account omitting Batang Kali. Some examples: Richard Stubbs, Hearts and Minds in Guerrilla Warfare: The Malayan Emergency 1948–1960 (Singapore: Oxford UP 1989), 73; Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper, Forgotten Wars: The End of Britain's Asian Empire (London: Allen Lane 2007), 449–53; Kumar Ramakrishna, Emergency Propaganda: The Winning of Malayan Hearts and Minds, 1948–1958 (Richmond-upon-Thames, UK: Curzon 2002), 63.

¹⁶For example, Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, 455.

¹⁷Short, Communist Insurrection, 160. The emphasis on legality is also evident in Keith Jeffery, ‘Intelligence and Counter-Insurgency Operations: Some Reflections on the British Experience’, Intelligence and National Security 2/1 (Spring 1987), 119.

¹⁸Short, Communist Insurrection, 160.

¹⁹Kumar Ramakrishna, ‘“Bribing the Reds to Give Up”: Rewards Policy in the Malayan Emergency’, War in History 9/3 (2002), 336; Kumar Ramakrishna, ‘Transmogrifying Malaya: The Impact of Sir Gerald Templer, 1952–54’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 32/1 (2001), 82.

²⁰Karl Hack, ‘Screwing down the people: the Malayan emergency, decolonisation and ethnicity’, in Hans Antlöv and Stein Tonnesson (eds.), Imperial Policy and Southeast Asian Nationalism (London: Curzon 1995), 87; Hack, ‘Iron Claws on Malaya’, 102; Karl Hack, ‘British Intelligence and Counter-Insurgency in the Era of Decolonisation. The Example of Malaya’, Intelligence and National Security 14/2 (Summer 1999), 126; Stockwell, ‘Chin Peng’, 290; Ramakrishna, ‘Transmogrifying Malaya’, 82; Richard Stubbs, ‘From Search and Destroy to Hearts and Minds: The Evolution of British Strategy in Malaya 1948–60’, in Daniel Marston and Carter Malkasian (eds.), Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare (Oxford: Osprey 2008), 116; Short, Communist Insurrection, 162.

²¹A.J. Stockwell, ‘“A widespread and long-concocted plot to overthrow government in Malaya”? The Origins of the Malayan Emergency’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 21/3 (1993), 85.

²²Stubbs, ‘Search and Destroy’, 115–16.

²³Hack, ‘British Intelligence’, 125; Ramakrishna, ‘Bribing the Reds’, 335.

²⁴John Coates, Suppressing Insurgency: An Analysis of the Malayan Emergency, 1948–1954 (Oxford: Westview Press 1992), 149.

²⁵Stubbs, ‘Search and Destroy’, 115.

²⁶Ramakrishna, ‘Bribing the Reds’, 336; Ramakrishna, ‘Transmogrifying Malaya’, 82.

²⁷Hack, ‘Screwing down the people’, 87; Hack, ‘British Intelligence’, 127–8; Coates, Suppressing Insurgency, 34.

²⁸Stubbs, ‘Search and Destroy’, 116.

²⁹Short, Communist Insurrection, 136; Hack, ‘Screwing down the people’, 87; Coates, Suppressing Insurgency, 38–9.

³⁰Short, Communist Insurrection, 120.

³¹Coates, Suppressing Insurgency, 146; Hack, ‘Iron Claws on Malaya’, 123.

³²Hack, ‘Screwing down the people’, 87; Short, Communist Insurrection, 161–6.

³³Short, Communist Insurrection, 162.

³⁴Hack, ‘British Intelligence and Counter-Insurgency’, 127–8; Riley Sunderland, Antiguerrilla Intelligence in Malaya, 1948–1960 (Santa Monica, CA: RAND 1964), 3–10.

³⁵Georgina Sinclair, At the End of the Line: Colonial Policing and the Imperial Endgame 1945–80 (Manchester: Manchester UP 2006), 189.

³⁶Richard K. Betts, ‘Analysis, War, and Decision: Why Intelligence Failures are Inevitable’, World Politics 31/1 (1978), 61.

³⁷Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, 429; Hack, ‘British Intelligence’, 127.

³⁸[Kew, United Kingdom, The National Archives] CO [Colonial Office papers] 537/3692: Comment by Dalley, 5th meeting of the British Defence Coordination Committee (Far East) [BDCC(FE)], 24 June 1948.

³⁹Leon Comber, ‘The Malayan Security Service (1945–1948)’, Intelligence and National Security 18/3 (Autumn 2003), 128, 135.

⁴⁰Brian Stewart, ‘Winning in Malaya: An Intelligence Success Story’, Intelligence and National Security 14/4 (Winter 1999), 270.

⁴¹Comber, ‘Malayan Security Service’, 136; Sunderland, Antiguerrilla Intelligence in Malaya, 4.

⁴²CO 537/3692: Minutes of the 9th meeting of the BDCC(FE), 23 July 1948; CO 717/171/3: Combined Intelligence Staff Summary [CISS] 5, week ending 12 Aug. 1948.

⁴³CO 537/4746: Minutes of the 11th Commissioner-General's conference, 21 Jan. 1949.

⁴⁴Karl Hack, ‘Corpses, Prisoners of War and Captured Documents: British and Communist Narratives of the Malayan Emergency, and the Dynamics of Intelligence Transformation’, Intelligence and National Security 14/4 (Winter 1999), 215; Daniel Marston, ‘Lost and found in the jungle: the Indian and British Army jungle warfare doctrines for Burma, 1943–45, and the Malayan Emergency, 1948–60’, in Hew Strachan (ed.), Big Wars and Small Wars: The British Army and the Lessons of War in the Twentieth Century (London: Routledge 2006), 84.

⁴⁵Sunderland, Antiguerrilla Intelligence in Malaya, 13; Short, Communist Insurrection, 78.

⁴⁶Betts, ‘Analysis, War, and Decision’, 64.

⁴⁷Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, 443.

⁴⁸T.N. Harper, The End of Empire and the Making of Malaya (Cambridge: Cambridge UP 1999), 151; Ramakrishna, ‘Bribing the Reds’, 336.

⁴⁹CO 717/171/3: CISS 3, week ending 29 July 1948.

⁵⁰CO 717/171/3: Federation of Malaya Police Summary [FMPS] 22, week ending 9 Dec. 1948.

⁵¹CO 537/4752: Letter from Creech Jones (Colonial Office) to Gurney (Malaya), 5 Dec. 1949.

⁵³CO 717/170/1: FARELF situation report [sitrep] 2, week of 12–19 July 1948.

⁵²CO 537/5068: Memo on organisational lessons of the Emergency, circa July 1949; Stewart, ‘Winning in Malaya’, 268.

⁵⁴CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 4, 28 July–10 Aug. 1948.

⁵⁵CO 717/171/3: CISS 4, week ending 5 Aug. 1948.

⁵⁶CO 537/3692: Minutes of the 10th meeting of the BDCC(FE), 6 Aug. 1948.

⁵⁷CO 717/171/3: FMPS 8, week ending 2 Sept. 1948.

⁵⁸WO 208/4838: Telegram FARELF to War Office, 4 Sept. 1948.

⁵⁹CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 10, 13–19 Sept. 1948.

⁶⁰CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 11, 19–25 Sept. 1948.

⁶¹CO 717/171/3: FMPS 13, week ending 7 Oct. 1948.

⁶²CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 14, 10–16 Oct. 1948.

⁶³CO 717/171/3: FMPS 14, week ending 14 Oct. 1948.

⁶⁴CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 16, 24–30 Oct. 1948.

⁶⁵CO 717/171/3: FMPS 16, week ending 28 Oct. 1948.

⁶⁶CO 717/171/3: FMPS 17, week ending 4 Nov. 1948.

⁶⁷CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 18, 5–11 Nov. 1948.

⁶⁸CO 717/171/3: FMPS 24, week ending 23 Dec. 1948.

⁶⁹CO 717/171/4: FMPS 26, week ending 6 Jan. 1949.

⁷⁰CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 29, 21–28 Jan. 1949.

⁷¹CO 717/171/4: FMPS 29, week ending 27 Jan. 1949.

⁷²CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 30, 28 Jan.–3 Feb. 1949.

⁷³CO 717/171/4: FMPS 57, week ending 11 Aug. 1949.

⁷⁴CO 717/171/4: FMPS 44, week ending 12 May 1949; CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 48, 3–9 June 1949; CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 63, 24–30 Sept. 1949.

⁷⁵CO 537/3692: Telegram from Malcolm MacDonald to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 26 June 1948.

⁷⁶CO 537/5068: Minutes of the 9th Commissioner-General's conference, 22–23 Jan. 1949; Hack, ‘Corpses, Prisoners of War and Captured Documents’, 215.

⁷⁷Betts, ‘Analysis, War, and Decision’, 70.

⁷⁸Marston, ‘Lost and found in the jungle’, 97; Short, Communist Insurrection, 136; Stubbs, Hearts and Minds in Guerrilla Warfare, 70.

⁷⁹Barber, War of the Running Dogs, 62; Stubbs, Hearts and Minds, 71.

⁸⁰Karl Hack, ‘British and Communist Crises in Malaya: A Response to Anthony Short’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 31/2 (2000), 392; Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, 441; Charles Townshend, ‘Martial Law: Legal and Administrative Problems of Civil Emergency in Britain and the Empire, 1800–1940’, Historical Journal 25/1 (1982), 168; Sinclair, At the End of the Line.

⁸¹CO 717/210/3: Minutes of the Commissioner-General's conference, 20 June 1948.

⁸²CO 537/3692: Minutes of the fifth meeting of the BDCC (FE), 24 June 1948.

⁸³CO 537/3692: Telegram from MacDonald to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 26 June 1948.

⁸⁴CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 1, 12 June–12 July 1948.

⁸⁵WO 208/4838: Telegram from FARELF to Ministry of Defence, 28 June 1948.

⁹⁵CO 717/171/3: CISS 4, week ending 5 Aug. 1948.

⁸⁶CO 717/210/3: Telegram from MacDonald to Sec. of State for the Colonies, 6 July 1948.

⁸⁷CO 537/3692: Letter from Creech Jones to A.V. Alexander, 8 July 1948.

⁸⁸WO 208/4838: Telegram from Ministry of Defence to GHQ FARELF, 14 July 1948.

⁸⁹CO 537/3692: Minutes of the ninth meeting of the BDCC (FE), 23 July 1948.

⁹⁰WO 208/4838: Telegram from GHQ FARELF to Ministry of Defence, 9 Aug. 1948.

⁹¹CO 537/3692: Telegram from MacDonald to Sec. of State for the Colonies, 10 Aug. 1948.

⁹²Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, 436.

⁹³CO 537/3692: Telegram from MacDonald to Sec. of State for the Colonies, 10 Aug. 1948.

⁹⁴WO 208/4838: Telegram from GHQ FARELF to Ministry of Defence, 9 Aug. 1948.

⁹⁶CO 537/3688: Local Defence Committee, Kuala Lumpur, ‘A paper on the dimensions and nature of the security problem confronting the government of the Federation of Malaya’, 16 Sept. 1948.

⁹⁷CO 537/3688: Minutes of the 12th meeting of the BDCC (FE), 27 Sept. 1948.

⁹⁸CO 537/3688: Letter to J.J. Paskin, Colonial Office, from Ralph Hone, Commissioner-General's Office, Singapore, 15 Oct. 1948.

⁹⁹CO 537/3688: Local Defence Committee, ‘A paper on the strategical and tactical measures required to deal with the internal security problem in the Federation of Malaya’, 8 Oct. 1948.

¹⁰⁰CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 16, 24–30 Oct. 1948.

¹⁰¹CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 19, 12–18 Nov. 1948.

¹⁰²CO 717/171/3: FMPS 21, week ending 2 Dec. 1948.

¹⁰³CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 48, 3–9 June 1949.

¹⁰⁴Thanks to David French for pointing this out. For a comparative analysis of Emergency Regulations see his forthcoming book: Army, Empire and Cold War. The British Army and British Military Policy, c.1945–1968 (Oxford: Oxford UP forthcoming).

¹⁰⁵CO 717/167/3: Federation of Malaya, Regulations made under The Emergency Regulations Ordinance, 1948, together with The Essential (Special Constabulary) Regulations, 1948, incorporating all Amendments made up to the 22nd March, 1949 (Kuala Lumpur: Government Printer 1949).

¹⁰⁷CO 537/4753: Statement by the High Commissioner for Malaya, Annexure ‘A’ to minutes of the 16^th meeting of the BDCC (FE), 28 Jan. 1949.

¹⁰⁶DEFE 70/101: Letter from A.C. Burcher, HQ Provost Marshal, to Ministry of Defence, 16 Feb. 1970.

¹⁰⁸Stubbs, Hearts and Minds, 73.

¹⁰⁹Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, 449–53.

¹¹⁰Ibid., 455.

¹¹¹CO 717/173/1: Telegram from Officer Administering the Government of Malaya [OAG] to the Sec. of State for the Colonies, 22 July 1948.

¹¹²CO 717/173/1: Telegram from OAG to Sec. of State, 21 July 1948.

¹¹³CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 4, 28 July–10 Aug. 1948.

¹¹⁴CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 18, 5–11 Nov. 1948.

¹¹⁵Ibid.

¹¹⁶CO 717/173/1: Telegram from Gurney to Sec. of State, 10 Nov. 1948.

¹¹⁷CO 717/173/1: Telegram from OAG to Sec. of State, 7 Aug. 1948.

¹¹⁸CO 717/173/1: Telegram from OAG to Sec. of State, 9 Aug. 1948.

¹¹⁹CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 33, 18–24 Feb. 1949.

¹²⁰CO 717/173/1: Telegram from OAG to Sec. of State, 24 Sept. 1948.

¹²¹CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 41, 15–21 April 1949.

¹²²CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 43, 29 April–6 May 1949.

¹²³CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 7, 22–29 Aug. 1948.

¹²⁴CO 717/173/1: Telegram from OAG to Sec. of State, 4 Aug. 1948.

¹²⁵CO 717/173/1: Telegram from OAG to Sec. of State, 25 Sept. 1948.

¹²⁶CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 29, 21–28 Jan. 1949.

¹²⁷CO 717/173/1: Telegram from OAG to Sec. of State, 6 July 1948.

¹²⁸CO 717/173/1: Telegram from OAG to Sec. of State, 27 July 1948.

¹²⁹CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 21, 26 Nov.–2 Dec. 1948.

¹³⁰CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 17, 30 Oct.–5 Nov. 1948.

¹³¹CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 19, 12–18 Nov. 1948.

¹³²CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 15, 17–23 Oct. 1948.

¹³³CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 25, 24–30 Dec. 1948.

¹³⁴CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 27, 7–13 Jan. 1949.

¹³⁵CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 34, 25 Feb.–3 March 1949.

¹³⁶CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 37, 18–24 March 1949.

¹³⁷CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 39, 1–7 April 1949.

¹³⁸CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 42, 22–28 April 1949.

¹³⁹CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 44, 7–13 May 1949.

¹⁴⁰CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 45, 14–20 May 1949.

¹⁴¹CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 46, 21–27 May 1949.

¹⁴²CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 49, 10–17 June 1949.

¹⁴³CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 52, 2–15 July 1949.

¹⁴⁴CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 73, 3–10 Dec. 1949.

¹⁴⁵CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 59, 27 Aug.–2 Sept. 1949.

¹⁴⁶CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 58, 20–26 Aug. 1949; FARELF sitrep 60, 3–9 Sept. 1949; FARELF sitrep 63, 24–30 Sept. 1949.

¹⁴⁷CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 67, 22–28 Oct. 1949; FARELF sitrep 71, 19–25 Nov.; FARELF sitrep 72, 26 Nov.–2 Dec. 1949.

¹⁴⁸Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, 430.

¹⁴⁹CO 537/4246: Telegram from Sec. of State for the Colonies to Commissioner-General in South East Asia, 12 June 1948.

¹⁵⁰Hack, ‘Iron Claws on Malaya’, 116.

¹⁵¹CO 825/77/1: Monthly report to the Sec. of State for the Colonies and the Foreign Sec., No. 2, 2 Sept. 1949.

¹⁵²Rhoderick Dhu Renick, Jr, ‘The Emergency Regulations of Malaya: Causes and Effect’, Journal of Southeast Asian History 6/2 (1965), 21.

¹⁵³John Weldon Humphrey, ‘Population Resettlement in Malaya’ (PhD thesis, Northwestern Univ. Evanston/Chicago, IL 1971), 81.

¹⁵⁴Renick, ‘Emergency Regulations’, 5; Hack, ‘Corpses, Prisoners of War and Captured Documents’, 216.

¹⁵⁵Renick, ‘Emergency Regulations’, 9.

¹⁵⁶Humphrey, ‘Population Resettlement in Malaya’, 67.

¹⁵⁷Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Wars, 448.

¹⁵⁸Stubbs, Hearts and Minds, 73; Short, Communist Insurrection, 154.

¹⁵⁹CO 537/4239A: Telegram from Commissioner-General for South East Asia to Sec. of State for the Colonies, 12 July 1948.

¹⁶⁶CO 717/171/3: FMPS 15, week ending 21 Oct. 1948.

¹⁶⁰For example, the attack recorded in: CO 717/173/1: Telegram from OAG to Sec. of State, 21 July 1948.

¹⁶¹CO 717/173/1: Telegram from OAG to Sec. of State, 17 Aug. 1948.

¹⁶²CO 717/173/1: Telegram from OAG to Sec. of State, 18 Aug. 1948.

¹⁶³CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 4, 28 July–10 Aug. 1948.

¹⁶⁴CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 10, 13–19 Sept. 1948.

¹⁶⁵CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 13, 3–9 Oct. 1948.

¹⁶⁷CO 717/170/1: FARELF sitrep 16, 24–30 Oct. 1948.

¹⁶⁸CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 34, 25 Feb.–3 March 1949.

¹⁶⁹CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 35, 4–10 March 1949; FARELF sitrep 40, 8–14 April 1949.

¹⁷⁰CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 37, 18–24 March 1949.

¹⁷¹CO 717/171/3: FMPS 39, week ending 7 April 1949.

¹⁷²CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 42, 22–28 April 1949.

¹⁷³CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 52, 2–15 July 1949.

¹⁷⁴CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 56, 6–12 Aug. 1949.

¹⁷⁵CO 717/170/2: FARELF sitrep 58, 20–26 Aug. 1949.

¹⁷⁶Hew Strachan, ‘British Counter-Insurgency from Malaya to Iraq’, RUSI Journal 152/6 (Dec. 2007), 11.