There is a total disconnect between the original thread on pprune and what has emerged in that paper. There have been some correcting rumours appearing here too but far be it from me to point to them.
However with modern communications things are clearly different from yesteryear and almost the same year as the Currant Bun was first published:
A large crowd was forming in a main street in Penang and getting bigger by the minute as our now venerable piper was entertaining one and all to a virtuoso performance. Immediately around the piper were a group of inconspicuous persons, long sleeved white shirts, properly tied ties etc, and on the periphery the growing crowd of Malays and other locals.
Into the group came a bunch of RAAF and RAF Police to break up the mob, possibly knock a few heads and restore order.
"Hello, hello, hello" or words to that effect, "Who's are you lot?"
"Wg Cdr Tanner, and who are you?"
"Er . . . , sorry Sir, but can you move on a bit, you're blocking the road."
They had about as much chance of doing anything as stopping an ice cream melting.
Oh, and we were on Ops with our trusty steeds the other side of a Strait and ferrys that stopped running at midnight.