[cl_steele]

can anyone tell me why exactly conflicts such as the Malayan emergency, the Kenyan emergency, the Cyprus emergency, Aden emergency etc. are called 'emergencies'? what separates them from a standard war? i remember someone saying someting about it was to do with insurance and it was to stop Loyds of London from un-insuring their equipment or something similar?

[anarchism101]

Because the government always wanted to portray these countries' desires for independence and self-determination as somehow unreasonable or invalid.

[Patriot Rich]

Very few things are technically a war. Afghanistan and the Falklands were not wars for example since a state of war was never declared.
They could be described as conflicts however war can only be declared on a foreign state, which anti-British rebels are not, plus declaring war is time-consuming and impractical since signing a peace treaty can be impossible (think Korea).

[IlliteratePedant]

The British government were very careful about labeling things 'wars' in the wake of World War II. And I don't know so much about Kenya, Cyprus, and Aden but the Malayan Emergency was a campaign of 'hearts and minds', it was a very psychological battle, more reliant on propaganda than any physical fighting.

[Dux_Helvetica]

They were called emergencies because when a part of your sovereign territory revolts and declares independence it is, in the eyes of the government, an emergency. Simple.