He had certainly been remiss in not believing their warnings

From Small Wars, Faraway Places by Michael Burleigh. Page 163.

Many of the planters blamed the outbreak on High Commissioner Sir Edward Gent, a liberal Whitehall mandarin who had not concealed his disdain for them. He had certainly been remiss in not believing their warnings, and the over-optimistic MSS assessment undoubtedly reflected his wishful thinking. The planters were so nervous that in Perak they began a sweepstake based on when, where and against whom the CTs would strike next within a given forty-eight-hour window.18 Faced with an editorial in the influential Straits Times that told him ‘Govern or Get Out’, Gent declared a ‘State of Emergency’, the choice of words dictated by planters whose London-based insurers would not pay out in the case of civil wars, but who would cover losses due to civil disorders and riots. The insurance companies had withdrawn cover in Palestine from 1945 to 1948 and by 1949 were threatening to do the same in Malaya. The British were also loath to introduce martial law and relied instead on the March 1939 Emergency Powers (Colonial Defence) Order-in-Council, which granted governors extensive arbitrary powers to preserve public safety and order.

Interesting point about commercial concerns influencing governance decisions in these circumstances.