Astride the Straits of Johore: The British Presence and Commonwealth Rivalry in South-east Asia.*

¹ For some biting comments on the practice of maternal relationship by the C.R.O. and its insistence on giving well-meaning advice see Kirkman, W. P., Unscrambling An Empire, London, 1966, pp. 187–8.

² Article IV of the Separation Agreement had made provision for the enactment of an act by the Parliament of Malaysia whereby sovereignty and jurisdiction of the Government of Malaysia in respect of Singapore would be relinquished and that on such relinquishment that the Government of Singapore would be vested with the said sovereignty and jurisdiction ‘in accordance with the Agreement and the constitution instruments annexed’. These instruments included the act to amend the constitution of Malaysia and the Malaysia act to which the representatives from Singapore were to be a passive party. In terms of constitutional legality it would seem that this act had to precede formal separation and is therefore binding on Singapore. Article 13 of this act stated inter alia ‘… as regards the Agreement on External Affairs and Mutual Assistance between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the Federation of Malaysia of 12 October 1957 and its annexes which were applied to all territories of Malaysia by Article VI of the Agreement Relating to Malaysia of 9 July 1963 … the Government of Singapore will after Singapore Day afford to the Government of the United Kingdom the right to continue to maintain the bases and other facilities occupied by their service authorities within Singapore and will permit the Government of the United Kingdom to make such use of these bases and facilities as that Government may consider necessary for the purpose of assisting in the defence of Singapore and Malaysia and for Commonwealth defence and for the preservation of peace in South East Asia’. See State of SingaporeGovernment Gazette Extraordinary, 9 08 1965, Vol. II. No. 66, pp. 2198–9.

³ Cmnd. 2901, p. 8.

⁴ 22 February 1966.

⁵ Parliamentary Debates, Singapore, 23 02 1966, Vol. 25, No. 1, col. 30.

⁶ Utusan Melayu 30 June 1966, commented ‘It was a coincidence [sic] that after the meeting in London between Mr Lee Kuan-yew and Mr Harold Wilson, the British Government decided to give no further aid to Malaysia, although at first British leaders had promised it’.

⁷ Reported in The Alliance, Kuala Lumpur, 29 06 1966.

⁸ In a speech to the Parliamentary Labour Party which was released to the press, see The Times, 16 June 1966.

⁹ See Bell, Coral ‘Asian Crises and Australian Security’, The World Today, February 1967.

* This article was presented in slightly different form as a paper at a seminar on Commonwealth Relations held in January 1967 at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.