Britain was at the time strongly in favour of finding almost any means to help Indonesian opponents of Sukarno's communist-backed regime, helpful local propaganda certainly being one of them. Gilchrist reported to London that he had always believed that "more than a little shooting" would be necessary to bring about a change of regime. This turned out to be true as the Indonesian Army led by the pro-American General Suharto took control from Sukarno following an alleged Communist coup d'e'tat in October 1965 and launched a nationwide purge, killing over 500,000 Communists and sympathizers; wiping out the Indonesian Communist Party. Gilchrist received a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1956, and was knighted via Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1964.