Colonies have budgets to be met.

From Small Wars, Faraway Places by Michael Burleigh. Page 160. The postwar conditions in Malaysia.

The outbreak of the Korean War helped the British in two ways. Firstly, it brought increased demand for Malayan rubber and tin, which meant that counter-insurgency efforts were virtually self-financing. In 1949 the Malayan colonial government had received $28.1 million in duty on rubber and $31.1 million on tin. A year later, the rubber duties were $89.3 million, and those on tin $50.9 million, and by 1951 the figures were $214.1 million and $76.2 million. The cost of fighting the insurgency rose from $82 million in 1948 to $296 million in 1953, virtually all of it defrayed from tax receipts on these two commodities. Secondly, what the Americans might otherwise have regarded as a sordid little colonial war designed to benefit British commercial interests could be depicted as part of a wider crusade against Communism, mirrored by eager British participation in the UN coalition fighting Communism in Korea.