In 1948, on this day a fourteen-man patrol from the 7th Platoon, G Company, 2nd Scots Guard led by led by two lance-sergeants, Charles Douglas and Thomas Hughes surrounded a rubber plantation, shot and killed twenty-eight unarmed Malayan civilians before setting fire to the village of Batang Kali.

Justice for Batang Kali Massacre Britain's My LaiThe official report produced by Commanding officer George Ramsay was immediately published in the Singapore-based Straits Times "Police, Bandits kill 28 [sic] bandits in day ... Biggest Success for Forces since [Malayan] Emergency Started". But the British owner of the Sungei Remok Estate, Thomas Menzies immediately contradicted the report, publicly stated that his labourers had a long record of good conduct. By the 24th December the Straits Times was calling for a public enquiry and British Communist MP Philip Piratin became directly involved in the dispute. Discovering that there was a living witness, he brought villager Romen Bose Tham to London. Together, they started the biggest firestorm in the history of the British Empire.