In referring to these gentlemen I might perhaps be allowed to say two or three words about the common market. I referred to the common market in my opening remarks. As your Lordships, I think, are aware, the Governments of Malaya and Singapore have agreed in principle to the creation of a common market which would extend to the whole of Malaysia, and this idea has been accepted by North Borneo and Sarawak. Indeed, one of the reasons for the difficulties which we encountered over the financial arrangements which we were discussing in London was exactly how the common market could be worked out, how the entrepôt trade of Singapore could be safeguarded, and, of course, very important, how the small traders in Singapore, who in fact are trading in what amounts to a low-tariff area rather than in a free port, could be taken care of. These were very difficult and complicated questions which had to be gone into in great detail. This is not news to your Lordships, and really it was this problem which made the negotiations in London rather slow and perhaps go on rather longer than some had expected.
However, I am happy to be able to inform your Lordships that satisfactory agreement was reached. Great patience was shown on all sides, and I am convinced that the bringing into effect of this common market—which will of course not happen at once; it will take a period of years to develop—will be to the great benefit of all peoples of Malaysia. So this was a great step forward, and I think all of us should perhaps pay our tribute to the World Bank, and to M. Rueff in particular, who was the author of the report which dealt with this question of the common market for Malaysia.
In this debate have spoken noble Lords with intimate knowledge and clearly great affection for this part of the world. I have not had the benefit of knowing this area so long or so well as many of the noble Lords who have spoken, but since August of last year I have visited this area no fewer than five times and I have travelled something over 90,000 miles. I have had the benefit of close personal relationships with people in North Borneo and Sarawak and throughout the territory of Malaya and in Singapore.
Like noble Lords who have spoken—the noble Lords, Lord Milverton, Lord Twining, Lord Shepherd, Lord Shackleton and Lord Ogmore—and many of the other noble Lords who know this part of the world, I have found myself becoming increasingly attached to the people who live in these countries. It has been said with great truth that the peoples in North Borneo and Sarawak have a deep affection and respect for the British people. This I found again and again, and I may tell your Lordships that of course that feeling is mutual.
Tribute has been paid already, but I should like here particularly to pay my own tribute to the present Governors of North Borneo and of Sarawak, both men who have followed in the tradition of noble Lords who have spoken in this House, and to the British expatriate officers. I think I must have met practically all of them, and I tried to have personal conversations with as many of them as possible. I think it is perhaps unnecessary to say this, but I should like to put on record that those officers, like others who serve this country overseas, as has been said in the course of this debate, have two homes—they have their home here and they have their home in the country which they serve. Their concern throughout all these negotiations has been that nothing should be done which was against the interests of the people of North Borneo and Sarawak. This has been their one consideration throughout all these negotiations, and this is something which all the people of North Borneo and Sarawak fully realise.
I think that one can say with absolute justice that the safeguards to which the noble Lord, Lord Cobbold, referred as being necessary for the people of North Borneo and Sarawak have, in fact, been achieved, and I believe that one can look forward to real happiness for these people living in this greater brotherhood of nations and, who knows!, as somebody said, this association may become greater yet—one cannot tell. I should like to say how much I regret that the Lord Bishop of Birmingham was unable to be in your Lordships' House this afternoon. However, we were most interested in the contribution of the right reverend Prelate the Lord Bishop of Leicester and grateful for what he was able to tell us. There is, of course, complete freedom of worship and of propagation of religion in North Borneo and Sarawak. I was greatly pleased to hear from the right reverend Prelate that in the discussions that were held with the Prime Minister religious toleration in Singapore is going to be the order of the day.
