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By July [1955] the Singapore Chinese Middle Schools Students' Union had begun
planning a campaign of agitation against the government. The Lim Yew Hock
government moved first, however, dissolving seven communist-front organizations,
including the student union, and closing two Chinese middle schools. This
touched off a protest sit- in at Chinese high schools organized by Lim Chin
Siong that ended in five days of rioting in which thirteen people were killed.
Troops were brought in from Johore to end the disturbance, and more than 900
people were arrested, including Lim Chin Siong, Fong Swee Suan, and Devan Nair.
The British approved of the Singapore government's tough action toward the
agitators, and when Lim Yew Hock led a delegation to London for a second round
of constitutional talks in March 1957, the Colonial Office proposed a compromise
on the internal security issue. The Singapore delegation accepted a proposal
whereby the Internal Security Council would comprise three Singaporeans, three
Britons, and one delegate from what was soon to be the independent Federation of
Malaya, who would hold the casting ballot. The Singapore delegation returned to
a hero's welcome; the Legislative Assembly accepted the proposals, and a
delegation was scheduled to go to London in 1958 for a third and final round of
talks on the new constitution.
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