Canberra, 9 August 1965
Secret
I am deeply disturbed to hear from Critchley that you intend to announce that Singapore is to be separated from Malaysia. I regret in view of our relations that you did not think it fit either to consult us or notify us what you were proposing to do.
We have been able to congratulate ourselves on the way in which international support for Malaysia has been increasing. The Prime Ministers’ Conference gave a satisfactory endorsement of Malaysia’s stand against Indonesia, and support seemed to be building up for Malaysia in other ways, as on the question of Malaysia’s participation in the Afro- Asian Conference.1
I must say now that a public announcement of the separation of Singapore, even though at this stage I do not know what such a move will really mean, could do harm to Malaysia’s position internationally and give considerable comfort to Indonesia and perhaps encourage Sukarno to even more dangerous courses. We have noted the satisfaction with which Indonesians have been commenting on public disagreements between leaders of the Government of the State of Singapore and the members of your Government, and their professed confidence that the pressure of confrontation would bring about the disintegration of Malaysia.2
You will understand that your decision creates great difficulties for Governments like my own which are pledged to assist in the defence of Malaysia and its territorial integrity and which have troops stationed there. Quite apart from the question of the future stability and status of the constituent parts of the Federation which your action raises, the security of the base in Singapore is also involved and is of great importance to us, as it is to you. The implications of separation for the future of the base are formidable.
If this message reaches you before any public announcement has been made, then I ask you most earnestly to delay the announcement until we have had some opportunity to consider exactly what you intend to do and its implications. In everything I have said publicly about Malaysia I have in the past stressed that Malaysia was created because the peoples of its various constituent parts wanted it. It seemed to me this was the basis of Malaysia’s case against Indonesia. I trust that nothing will be done which might prejudice irrevocably the chances of the country staying together in harmonious union. Even a partial disengagement would be easier to justify internationally and would hold more support.
I would not wish to suggest that the issues in dispute are not matters which the Malaysians must themselves settle, and I fully realise that relations between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore have been under great strain in recent weeks. I do not discount the possibility that the Malaysian people themselves would prefer a new constitutional arrangement. But I believe that the question of separation should not be pursued without thought to its other complications, particularly the defence of Malaysia with which Britain, New Zealand and Australia are closely concerned. Separation will involve real and practical problems for these countries, yet we are all without any information about form and method of separation and on the attitudes of the various constituent elements of the Federation and their political parties and leaders.
I appreciate the stresses you personally are under and your great leadership in the past. Please be assured that I am not offering these comments in a carping spirit or that I am unmindful of your own domestic and other problems. But I want you to be aware that actions taken in this matter have great implications for our country as well as for your own.
[NAA: A1838, 3027/10/1 part 3]
1 See footnote 8, Document 242.
2 See Document 282.