The Malayan Communist Party as Recorded in the Comintern Files

A Conf. (sic) [emphasis added] of the LU was called on (sic) April, immediately
after the Party conference [emphasis added].
On April 29, a meeting was held to prepare the Mayday. All 11 comrades attending
the meeting were arrested, including the secretary of the Party, the sec. of the LU,
and a member of the Party CC. 9
On the other hand, as recorded in the first Chapter, the Siam communist organization sent a letter to
Kuusinen in the late 1930s stating that in May 1930, under the guidance of the Eastern Secretariat,
the PC of Malay held the Third Congress at which the CC of the Malay CP was elected. (emphasis
added).
The information obtained from these sources raises a new question: was the inaugural congress
held shortly before 1 May or on 21 May? A few decades later, Ho Chi Minh, who had presided at
the Congress, recalled that, “On a day prior to 1 May, the First Representatives Congress of the
MCP was held in Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan. But as this place drew attention of suspicious men,
shifted to Johor and held the congress there.” 10 In 1948, however, Li Chi-sin noted that
In May or June, the First Representatives Congress was held in Johor. Attended by
A Song ( 阿 宋 . Nguyen Ai Quoc) who was dispatched by the FEB. Discussed in
National Language [Mandarin]. CC including secretary, Li ( 黎 xx) [xx is original],
head of propaganda, Fu Tai-keng and head of organization, Wu Ching ( 吴 菁 @ Hsu
T’ien-ping. 徐 天 炳 ) was elected. In the same year, T’ien-ping was arrested. 11
Yong’s list of the MCP’s top leaders is similar to Li’s. According to Yong, however, both Li (Lei
Kuang-juan) and Wu were arrested on 29 April 1930 (in the so-called Nassim Road Incident). At
that time, moreover, Wu and Mah Tso-jen ( 马 作 人 ) were respectively the secretary of the NPC and
secretary of the NGLU. Yet secretary of the NGLU could mean its supreme leader which would
have been its head, Ch’en Shao-chang ( 陈 绍 昌 ). Ch’en chaired the first representatives’ conference
of the Malayan General Labour Union (MGLU) which replaced the NGLU. This conference was
held after the inaugural conference of the MCP in the latter part of April 1930. At the end of the
meeting, Ts’ai Ting-wei ( 蔡 廷 位 ) was popularly elected the new head of the MGLU.
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