RE the Malaysian Medal holders in your excellent article (Daily Echo, June 15). I think it is an excellent award for those who served from 1957 when Malaya became independent and both the Malaysian Government and the recipients are to be congratulated. They should wear their medals with pride.

However, for obvious reasons the Malaysian Government cannot award the medal to all those who were involved before 1957 when the communist terrorists were likely at their peak, thereby creating a very unfair imbalance to those who involved from 1948 to 1957.

However, it is nice to know that MP Sandra Gidley is fighting our cause and maybe one day this will be redressed.

We were only given the General Service Medal - awarded for minor conflicts and no way could this be referred to as a minor conflict.

The Malaysian government, and the governments of Australia and New Zealand, unlike our own government, are obviously aware of the hardships endured by all those who took part in this 12 year campaign.

It was never called a war for two reasons, firstly, Malaya was trying to recover after having been devastated during the Japanese occupation in the Second World War and, had it been declared a war the London insurance market would give no cover for any losses, and secondly, the Communist governments in China and Korea - possibly assisted by the Russians - may well have given massive assistance leading to another victory for them and Communist control in the whole of Asia, likely including Australia and New Zealand. This particularly after their successes in Vietnam and Korea.

It was all delicately balanced when it all started in 1948.

We were fighting communist terrorists, trained and armed by the British government to fight the Japanese in the Second World War.

They, like the Japanese, were determined to take control of Malaya at any cost - and they certainly terrorised the Malay civilian population who refused to co-operate, killing, maiming, decapitating children in full view of their parents, also destroying properties and vehicles.

Possibly because there were no tanks, very few fighter aircraft, battleships or rockets involved, no battle films and very little information in the press, we were never considered worthy of a proper medal by the British government yet 1,873 members of the British armed forces who fought in very inhospitable conditions, often for long periods, lost their lives in what has frequently been described as the worst jungle in the world.

Furthermore, cameras were not permitted to be taken into the jungle and it is doubtful if the cameras of that period would have survived the very damp and humid conditions.

Had those who made the decision not to award us a proper medal spent just one week in the jungle with a very heavy back pack, being bitten by hordes of mosquitoes, covered in blood sucking leeches, avoiding crocodiles, deadly scorpions and snakes and suffering numerous skin ailments, illnesses, foot-rot etc, all while existing on primitive 24 hour ration packs while searching for a ruthless well-armed enemy they would surely have reached a very different conclusion.

I am in the throes of writing a book about the Royal Hampshire Regiment's achievements in Malaya from 1954 to 1956; we played a major part in turning the situation around. Many had nightmares for years and many are still suffering.

PHIL MARTIN, Totton.