During the Malayan Emergency, the British military employed Dayak troops against the Malayan National Liberation Army. News of this reached the British parliament in 1952 after "The Daily Worker" published photographs of Royal Marines posing with Dayak scouts holding the severed heads of suspected MNLA members. Initially, the British government denied allowing Dayak troops to practise headhunting against the MNLA, until Colonial Secretary Oliver Lyttleton confirmed to Parliament that the Dayaks were indeed granted such a right to do so. All Dayak troops were disbanded upon the end of the conflict.