I know as much about Staybright buttons as I do about matters nautical, Danny. So the only thing I can say is that I never had any trouble with them (or more importantly got into any trouble with them) so perhaps as you say they were subject to later development.
I hope that you have been copying and pasting my words in quoting them, Danny. They certainly weren't worth any more effort than that. Hopefully we can draw a line under the boat business. I only raised it in support of your "Scow's Chain" reminisces, but now realise that "There is little more that I can helpfully add to assist you in your inquiries". I had forgotten the effectiveness with which I had avoided involvement in the project, and therefore knowledge of it. Now that is convincing, isn't it?
What the real point of the COIN trials in Malaya were really about, I'm not sure, just as I'm not sure why we weren't billeted at Butterworth. I suspect that I was savvy enough not to question either, given our tenuous attachment to this gravy train and the obvious disadvantages of a premature return to Singapore if we became all of a sudden surplus to the trial! I suspect that either the MOD was trying to help BAC flog COIN type aircraft or was thinking of buying some itself. As you say much better to get some big radial engined monster out of mothballs anyway, as the the USAF did with the Skyraider.
Oh to be a fly on the wall as you tried to contribute your armful! Turned you down just because of a few technicalities, such as jaundice*1, dengue*1, malaria*3? Just like Hancock there was really only one dignified response, "Very well, I shall take my business elsewhere, I bid you good day!" (Exits right through cupboard door, re-emerging to try exiting again).