his opinion, there would be no way of bringing about peace other than to offer suitable amnesty terms for the surrender of the Communists. The Tunku reiterated that if the Communists accepted the amnesty "everyone would be pardoned." The Tunku then explained the amnesty terms in full. He added that the Government had carried out its part of the terms with regard to local ceasefires but that the Communists had continued offensive action. As a result, ceasefire arrangements had been suspended by the Government, although the Security Forces would like to know the reason. The Tunku also reminded Chin Peng that he did not come to the meeting as a spokesman for the British Government, he came "neither as the stooge or running dog of colonialism" but as a "servant of the people". Chin Peng replied that it was because he realised that the Tunku was not "the spokesman of the British Government or the running dog of the British Government" that they were prepared to meet them at a risk to their lives. Chin Peng explained that he had not come to the meeting to argue questions of ideology but to search for peace "so that the misery of the people can be reduced". Chin Peng pointed out the MCP rejected the amnesty offer because it did not permit Communists to "enjoy equal status so that those that genuinely intended to be loyal to the Government would be helped to regain their normal position in society." Chin Peng then mentioned the past statement by the Tunku that if the MCP stopped the armed struggle, then they could enjoy a status that would enable them to fight for independence by constitutional means. The amnesty terms did not contain such a point. To this the Tunku replied that the amnesty specifically declared that Communists who gave up communism and showed that they genuinely intended to be loyal to the government would be "helped to regain their normal position in society". First, however, the communists would have to show their loyalty to Malaysia. In his view, simply to be anti-British was not sufficient to show that one was loyal to Malaya. The Tunku pointed out that the Malayan people regarded the Communist activities as something entirely foreign to the Malayan way of life. They regarded the Communist Party as belonging to a power outside the country and considered that its members gave