The Malayan Communist Party as Recorded in the Comintern Files

CHAPTER VI
THE MCP AND THE COMINTERN FROM 1935 TO 1939
I 1935
1. A Russian-language document, dated 27 July 1935, is summarized below:
Politcomissar held from 20 January 1931 proposed to approve the MCP as its branch at the 7th
Congress of the Comintern. 1
For the past one and a half years, this organization lost contact with the Comintern and the CCP
which was led by the Comintern. We have not been informed of its activities and organizations.
Therefore, the ES refrains from approving its application for affiliating with the Comintern as a
section. 2
Another loss of contact was affirmed by the Special Branch in 1935. According to Cheah, the SB
reported that throughout 1935, the MCP lost contact with the Comintern apparatus in Shanghai and
consequently failed to receive any subsidy and instructions. 3
In fact, as shown in Table 6, though the Comintern received three reports dated March 1934 from
the MCP, three other letters dated August 1934 did not reach it. In 1935 none.
The above Russian-language document clearly shows that the MCP had not obtained official
affiliation with the Comintern. Kurihara also states that the MCP’s membership was not approved
right to the end of the Comintern. 4 This crucial piece of information stands at odds with previous
views on this matter. Hanrahan had cited the Constitution issued by the Sixth Plenary Session of
the CC of the MCP on 6 March 1934. In that Constitution, Article 1 declared that, “The MCP is an
affiliate of the Comintern” (emphasis added). 5 In fact, as will be clarified later, the 6th Enlarged
Plenum of the CC of the MCP was held in April 1939. According to the MCP’s official document,
the first clause of the 1939 Constitution declared that, “The MCP is a preparatory branch ( 预 备 支
部 ) of the Comintern” (emphasis added). 6 However, another MCP document issued in 1946, Nan
Dao Zhi Chun, stated that, “The MCP is a branch of the Comintern.” 7
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