WITH reference to the recent letters on HMS Malaya by Wan Abu Baker and Capt P.J. River, I’d like to point out that the warship’s bell stands in the front hall of the East India Club, St James’s Square, London.

Above it is a framed account of how the ship came to be paid for, namely by voluntary donations on a large scale by business people in Malaya, in particular plantation and tin mine owners, management and staff and the colonial civil service.

I think I’m right in saying the ship was part of the large Pacific Fleet especially assembled by the Royal Navy (it included the French battleship Richeleu) to take part, along with the even larger American fleet, in the assault on Japan in 1945, which, of course, never took place because of the Japanese surrender.

W. GREER, Cameron Highlands

Source: NST – April 28, 2008