businessman when he passed through checkpoints. In Perak, Davis and Lim re-established contact with Major Freddie Chapman, who was part of a British unit that stayed behind after the Malayan Campaign and had been carrying out small-scale attacks against the Japanese in Malaya. They also met guerrilla fighters of the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), including the Malayan communists Chin Peng and Lai Teck. They reached an agreement that the resistance group would be placed under British command in exchange for weapons, supplies and training. One of the Chinese provision shops in Ipoh, Jian Yik Jan (), was used as an Allied espionage base. Communication between the agents was done through smuggling messages in empty toothpaste tubes, salted fish and diaries. Operation Gustavus failed before the agents managed to achieve any results. A communist guerrilla who was captured by the Japanese in January 1944 revealed the existence of the Allied spy network operating on Pangkor Island. In response, the Japanese launched a full-scale counter-espionage operation on the island. By late March 1944, more than 200 soldiers were on the island. On 24 March, the Kempeitai arrested a fisherman, Chua Koon Eng (), at Teluk Murrek on the Perak coast. Chua was working on Pangkor Island when Li Han-kwong () of Force 136 approached him and requested to use his boat for their communications. Chua confessed and implicated Li in the spy ring. The Japanese laid a trap for Li (who had already escaped Pangkor by then) and, using Chua as bait, captured him shortly after. Under duress, Li confirmed Chua's story but managed to avoid adding anything the Japanese already knew. The Kempeitai took Li to Ipoh in the hope that he would reveal more information. However, Li managed to escape on 26 March 1944 into the jungle. The Kempeitai went on an all-out search for Li and other Force 136 members, eventually leading to Lim's capture. The entire spy network was destroyed by 31 March 1944 and was not reestablished until February 1945. Capture and death Lim was captured by the Kempeitai under Major Ōnishi Satoru () at a roadblock in Gopeng, Perak around March or April 1944, and taken to the Kempeitai headquarters for interrogation. He refused to provide the Japanese with any information about Force 136 despite being subjected to torture, and protested against the ill treatment of his comrades in prison. He fell ill with dysentery