MALAYSIA BILL
HL Deb 26 July 1963 vol 252 cc932-79
12.14 p.m.
Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT DILHORNE) My Lords, I have it in Command From Her Majesty the Queen to signify to the House that Her Majesty, having been informed of the purport of the Malaysia Bill has consented to place Her Majesty's privilege and interest, so far as they are affected by the Bill, at the disposal of Parliament for the purpose of this Bill
THE, MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE My Lords, I beg to note that this Bill be now read a second time. Last night, for reasons which I do not know but for which I am none the less grateful, my right honourable friend the Colonial Secretary did not include me in his all-night sitting.
THE EARL OF LISOTWEL Lords, the noble Marquess meant the Commonwealth Secretary, not the Colonial Secretary
THE, MARQUESS OF LANSDOWNE I meant either or both This enabled me to go to bed a little earlier and while doing so to listen to the wireless. As I listened, I heard Important news items, among others an account of the Paris collections—charming little chiffon dresses, tweed stockings, deep plunging necklines—and then, the initialling of the Test Ban Treaty. I hope that in a balanced item of news today perhaps this Malaysia Bill may also find an honourable place.
As your Lordships know, it was only on July 9 that the Malaysia Agreement was signed. We had hoped that this would have been done earlier, but there were difficulties in the negotiations; in particular, about the establishment of a Malaysian common market and the financial arrangements between the Federation and Singapore. These were very complicated matters and it would not have been right to attempt to rush them. It was essential that fairly detailed agreements should he reached, if Malaysia was to start on a sound and economic basis. This, together with the need to get this Bill through before the Recess because the date for the creation of Malaysia is August 31. means. I regret to that I am asking your Lordships to pass this Bill through all its stages today.
I hope to show, however that the arrangements set out in the Command Paper were slowly and painstakingly worked out and have been the subject of most careful and patient consideration by all concerned, so that they truly represent the wishes of the peoples of the new states, as well as or the present Federation of Malaya, and they incorporate the safeguards which local opinion in those States requires. The Bill itself provides for the relinquishment of Her Majesty‘s sovereignty over North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore, so that they can federate with the existing States of Malaya in accordance with the Malaysia Agreeement, which was signed by representatives of all the Governments concerned. A clause by clause description of the Bill is, I think, scarcely necessary. The clauses are the usual ones in a Bill of this kind.
The Idea of a Malaysia Federation has been in the minds of many For a long time. This idea was first translated into action in May, 1961, when Tunku Abdul Rahman Prime Minister of Malaya, proposed an understanding with Singapore and the Borneo states. This proposal in evoked an immediate response in all the territories, and the idea gradually took hold on the imagination or the peoples so that new there is a real enthusiasm for the Federation of
