The Malayan Communist Party as Recorded in the Comintern Files

tried to establish its own networks in Nanyang using the MCP. 9 That might not have been a
unilateral decision of the FEB given the MCP’s requests for advisors.
(2) Three members of the mission
To recapitulate, the FEB sent a three-man mission comprising J. Ducroux (alias Serge Lefranc,
Gordon), Wong Mok Han and Teo Yuen-foo (Bassa) to Singapore in April 1931. Ducroux left
Shanghai at the end of January or the beginning of March 1931, and via Hong Kong and Indochina,
arrived in Singapore on 27 April 1931. 10 His principal task, according to Onimaru, was to make
Singapore the FEB’s liaison base in Nanyang and to establish a liaison line with India. 11 For C. F.
Yong, Ducroux’s main objectives included the reorganisation of the MCP, especially the promotion
of the Malay communist movement. The PPTUS in Shanghai set aside $50,000 for his task.
Wong’s task was to assist in the development of the MGLU. Teo Yuen-foo’s plan included the
promotion of communism among the Malays. 12 And since the MCP repeatedly requested personnel
who could lead the movement among the Malays, the role of Bassa, who could speak Javanese, 13
Malay, English and Dutch, 14 was quite clear.
Onimaru’s study has shown that on 1 May 1931, from an intercepted letter sent by the CC of the
MCP to the All India Communist Party, the Criminal Intelligence Department (CID) of Singapore
had determined that a representative of the PPTUS of Shanghai had arrived in Singapore. On 15
May, the CID intercepted a letter from Wan (Ho Chi Minh’s pseudonym) to the CC of the MCP;
the letter contained Ducroux’s address. From then on Ducroux’s every activity and meeting was
placed under surveillance. On 1 June 1931, Ducroux, Fu Tai-keng and Wong Mok Han were
arrested at Ducroux’s office. Based on information from the documents seized at their residences,
Ho Chi Minh was arrested in Hong Kong on 6 June, and Noulens on 15 June in Shanghai. 15 With
this round-up by the police, the MCP’s connection with the Comintern was severely cut off for a
few years.
(3) Gordon’s French-language letter dated 22 May 1931
This letter is kept in File Ф. 495 оп.62 д.11 which is entitled, “Reports and Information on the
country sent from Malaya to the AAS”. According to Onimaru, Ducroux’s 22 May letter was sent
to P. O. Box 206, Shanghai, but it was intercepted by the CID. (Part of the letter was written in
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