Singapore Volunteer Corps

The multi-ethnic local police force of 1,200 were not routinely trained to carry weapons, apart from a group of about 220 Sikhs.

A Singapore Volunteer Corps existed of Malay and Chinese men who were poorly trained and seen as inferior military material for fighting men.

The mutiny coincided with the Chinese New Year, an important holiday for family reunion and renewal, where the old and ill fortune is symbolically swept away by house cleaning to make room for good luck.

Old fears of colonial soldiers raping and murdering white women spread, with the authorities evacuating European women and children to ships in the harbour.