Canberra, 11 August 1965
1166. Secret Immediate
Defence Arrangements for Singapore
Reference your telegram No. 1737.1
You will have seen from Prime Minister’s statement and messages to Wilson,2 Tunku3 and Lee4 the stress which is placed by the Government on the continuation of existing arrangements for a unified system of defence. Wishes of the Malaysian and Singapore Governments in the terms attributed to Razak seem to be similar. Our aim is to work Singapore into the existing defence structure and to continue to have the whole area treated as one for defence. It is not clear whether Singapore itself has raised the question of a Singapore Military Commander being involved in the defence machinery but it seems to us that this question, as one of the first to be raised, will require careful handling. We do not want to inflate the role of Singapore but it is imperative that we give no encouragement to the view that the Singapore Government should not participate as an equal. Such a view could be implied by Razak’s statement that he saw no reason for a Singapore Military Commander to be involved in the defence machinery.
2. Representation of Australia on the National Defence Council would raise new policy issues which would require consideration by Ministers in Australia.
3. We would not wish to express official views on whether or not the Defence Agreement would need to be re-negotiated or whether other new legal instruments would be required. In the first instance we would wish to have the views of the British Government on these matters before forming views of our own.
[NAA: A1838, TS682/21/1 part 15]
1 10 August. It reported that Razak had advised CINCFE and the British, Australian, and New Zealand High Commissioners that there were to be no immediate changes in the current defence arrangements of the Malaysian and Singaporean Governments. In addition to the Joint Defence Council to be set up under the Separation Agreement, Singapore’s Minister of Defence and Commissioner of Police would be included in the existing NDC, the latter also in the NOC. (The NDC would subsequently become the Combined Defence Council (CDC) and the NOC, the Combined Operations Committee (COC).) The Singapore Military Commander was not to be included, although consideration had been given to the inclusion of the High Commissioners. The general view of this discussion was that the UK-Malaysian Defence Agreement would have to be renegotiated to include Singapore’s association with it.
2 Document 301.
3 Document 300.
4 Document 299.