The resemblance was great above the nose, but the mouth was different. Unsmiling between the stubborn long upper lip and the small round chin, her mother’s was the surliest mouth I encountered among these tight-lipped, harsh, and harried farmers dragged by the tens of thousands in and out of the nets of the Police, whose refuge was silence and stubborn negativeness. Little Brother had large intelligent eyes and his head swung freely round on his graceful neck, inspecting everything. Though the manner of his body and the position of his hands and feet were respectful enough, it was a skin-shallow obeisance. ‘You know,’ said Pang, handsome and genial as ever, on one of his cheerful visits to the S.E.P.s in the kitchen (they always greeted him with the enthusiasm of Henry VIII’s frightened courtiers), ‘that little boy was a member of a cell, leader of a children’s communist organization.’ And he patted the child’s head with benign and clever fingers, and called him fondly Little Mosquito, a term of endearment for all male children.

Ah Mei’s case was now being taken up in good earnest by the Law, for relief of her sentence. At that moment justice in Malaya was slightly ruffled by the famous case of Lee Meng, and though what was done was always done fairly, by Emergency Regulation standards, yet never had judgement over enemy personnel, hanged for their offences, been questioned or criticized as it was in the case of the girl, Lee Meng.

Lee Meng, or Lee Teng Tai, known as The Grenade Girl, was not the first woman to hang in the Emergency. But the other cases (a hundred and eighty-two men, two women) had been conducted in secrecy in closed courts.

Lee Meng was tried twice. The first time witnesses against her were all S.E.P.s. She spat in the face of one, calling them all running dogs buying their freedom by selling the lives of innocent people. A British police inspector declared he recognized her, having seen her once through field glasses outside a cave three years before.

There is no trial by jury in these cases, but assessors are appointed to render a verdict. The Indian and Chinese appointed found her not guilty. But the judge, who was British, disagreed and ordered a retrial, for under the assessor system a person can be tried again and again for the same crime. The second time, a European assessor was picked by the judge. The European found her guilty, the Asian found her not guilty. The judge agreed with the European assessor and Lee Meng was condemned to death. In this second trial, three surrendered enemy personnel testified against Lee Meng, and one of them frankly declared that the more information he gave, the greater would be his pardon.