WaybackWire

KUALA LUMPUR, Sunday.—Separation was first considered eight months ago, and fear finally decided the Government on a complete break, Mr. Tan Siew Sin told the M.C.A. course at Jinjang today.

Tunku Abdul Rahman talked to him last December of a “partial break”, he said. Mr. Tan held there must be either a complete break or complete integration, Singapore coming in as a State like Malacca or Penang. “We found that we could not agree on anything with them.”

The temperature, he said, had been rising on both sides of the Causeway and among Malays and Chinese.

Mr. Tan denied that the Singapore leaders were forced to agree, and said Mr. Lee had over-estimated his own strength. On the day the agreement was signed, Mr. Lee told him: “This is a defeat for me but this is your hour of personal triumph.” Mr. Tan called it sad but necessary.

Tun Razak, opening the Selangor Keng Chew Association’s new premises, said the Tunku feared racial clashes if preventive steps were not taken. “The Alliance Government policy for the promotion of goodwill and understanding between the various races in Malaysia will continue.”

The Sunday Times in Kuala Lumpur reported today that the Tunku decided on the break while in a London hospital in June, drawing up a “balance sheet” of several foolscap pages, and reached the “painful decision” on June 29.

PENANG, Sunday.—Five parties vowed tonight to fight on for a “Malaysian Malaysia” and to work by constitutional means for Singapore’s return, at a Malaysian Solidarity Convention rally before a big crowd at the City Stadium.

Mr. Ong Kee Hui of the S.U.P.P. said Sarawak, which trades largely through Singapore, must reassess its position, since Singapore’s inclusion had helped bring it into Malaysia. Once the people recovered from the shock, he said, “they must seek the re-unification of Singapore or seek other arrangements to safeguard their future.”

Dr. Lim Chong Eu of the U.D.P. said the Alliance leaders and the Tunku were at their lowest ebb. “Everything we had been made to believe in about Malaysia stands in great peril.”

Mr. C. V. Devan Nair of PAP Malaysia said what is left of Malaysia faces a crisis of confidence; if it failed, Indonesia would absorb its parts. He wants safeguards against amendments forced through by the Alliance. “If public confidence in Malaysia is to be restored, then the Alliance must show it is able to curb the activities of the ultras, and reduce them to size.”

LONDON, Sunday.—Britain will go on helping Malaysia and Singapore against attack from outside as long as both Governments ask, a communique said after Ministers met at Culdrose Naval Air Station, Cornwall.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Harold Wilson, and the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Michael Stewart, broke their Scilly Isles holiday; Mr. Denis Healey, Mr. Cledwyn Hughes and Lord Head attended.

“While the two countries continue as at present to be objects of hostile attack from outside, and while both wish us to continue to assist them in repelling these attacks, we shall continue to do so,” the communique said.

Singapore’s decision has “implications which are receiving further consideration”, and some aspects may need British legislation. Britain has over 50,000 troops committed in the Malaysia area.

KUCHING, Sunday.—Sarawak’s Chief Minister, Dato Stephen Kalong Ningkan, said today that small states seeking arrangements with neighbours had sometimes been swallowed up, while Sarawak, by handing some sovereignty to a Central Government, had gained immense advantages.

Opening a National Language book exhibition, he said: “It is difficult to see any future in Sarawak outside a federal form of government embracing the States in this region which subscribes to democratic ideals.”

In Sandakan, the Sabah Affairs Minister, Dato Donald Stephens, told Sabah not to worry about Malaysia’s future. Of a Sabah-Brunei-Sarawak federation, he said: “I don’t think that’s possible now.”

Tun Razak’s Borneo visit, it was learnt in Kuala Lumpur, may come during the Malaysia Day celebrations and last a week.

SINGAPORE, Sunday.—The Barisan Sosialis chairman, Dr. Lee Siew Choh, flying in from Tokyo just after midnight, called Singapore’s independence phoney. “It is all a phoney and a humbug. There is no real independence.”

He claimed the Singapore Government must still get the Central Government’s approval on foreign affairs, and attacked the secrecy of the talks: “Which leader of the people negotiates for his country’s independence in secret?”

Dr. Lee had been at the World Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs. About 100 supporters met him. Police, who had expected a much larger crowd, had a troop of Reserve Unit men at the airport and Special Branch officers among the crowd.