Bank Closing

"Shut the door, they're coming through the window; shut the window, they're coming through the door; oh, gee, now they're coming through the floor!" This children's jingle could be the theme song for Malaya's long struggle against Communist penetration. Prime Minister Tengku Abdul Rahman, by means of amnesties, bribes and force of arms, has cleared the jungle of the guerrilla bands of Red Boss Chin Peng. By sternly refusing recognition to Red China, he has kept Malaya free of Mao Tse-tung's swarming diplomatic and cultural missions. Last week the Prime Minister slammed shut the last window that permitted Red infiltration: the Communist Bank of China in his capital city of Kuala Lumpur.

The sixth largest bank in Malaya, with capital estimated at $20 million, Bank of China handles about one-third of all Malayan transactions with the Red mainland. It has played its part in boosting overall trade between the two countries to a whopping $152 million, of which $100 million represents a favorable balance for the Communists. Bank of China also engages in such un-bankerish activities as the financing of trips of Malayan students and businessmen to China, the charging of minimal interest for unsecured loans to favored individuals, and the relaying home of economic, political and military information.

To free his government of the strangling Red embrace. Prime Minister Rahman first declared a boycott of Chinese textiles, cement and chemicals, which have been flooding the Malayan market at below-cost prices. Last week he rammed through the Legislative Council a bill decreeing that any bank operating in Malaya that is owned by a foreign government or on behalf of that government or any of its agencies, must cease operation within three months. Of Kuala Lumpur's 15 banks--British as well as Malayan--the only one to answer to all the specifications is the Communist Bank of China.

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