Malayan Security Service (original) (raw)

The Malayan Security Service (MSS) (Malay: Cawangan Khas) was the domestic intelligence service of colonial Malaya and Singapore from 1939 to 1948. It was established to replace and centralize the operations of the individual intelligence agencies of the Federated Malay States and Straits Settlements under one, Pan-Malayan organization for the entire Peninsular. It was modeled closely after the MI5, the United Kingdom’s domestic counter-intelligence service, in that it was primarily tasked with information gathering and had no executive powers to detain or arrest. It was distinct and separate from the Criminal Investigational Division Branches (CID) of the Malayan or Singapore Police.