 In times of emergency or war, they could depend on the support of the local population and tribespeople.The Sarawak Rangers were disbanded for a few years until 1932, only to be reformed as Sarawak Constabulary and mobilised for the Second World War in which they attempted to defend Sarawak from Japanese invasion in 1942 at the start of the Pacific War.After the abdication of Charles Vyner Brooke in 1946 and the creation of the Crown Colony of Sarawak, the Sarawak Rangers became a colonial unit under direct British control and saw action in both the Malayan Emergency and the Borneo Confrontation.