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EMB; ARGO: NOT FOR PUBLICA'TION, BROADCAST, or CABLING
BEFORE P. M. 28TH SEPTEMBER, 1959, PM o 6l~
VISIT BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYA
STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER, RT. HON. R. G. MENZIES
The Prime Minister announced today that the Prime
Minister of Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman, had accepted an invitation
to visit Australia between 30th October and 14+ th November
of this year. He would have discussions with the Australian
Cabinet in Canberra and fulfil a number of important engagements.
He would attend the opening of the Commonwealth
Parliamentary Association meeting in Canberra and in the course
of his stay there would also open the new offices and residence
of the High Commissioner for Malaya. He would also visit some
Australian States. Mr. Menzies said that he greatly looked
forward to seeing Tunku Abdul Rabman who would be most welcome
in Australia. Mr. Menzies added that he would visit Indonesia from
about 2nd to 7th December. After that he would go on to visit
Malaya between 7th and 12th December. He will be accompanied
by Dame Pattie Menzies. He would have discussions with Government
leaders in Indonesia and Malaya as well as seeing as much
as he could of both countries which were important neighbours
of Australia. Mr. Menzies said that his forthcoming journey
would enable him to have firsthand contact with Indonesia which
he had previously visited only for a very short time during the
recent war. It had been necessary to defer the plans which
he had made for Zoing there in 1956. It would also be his
first visit to Malaya since that country achieved its independence
in 1957. Mr. Menzies said that he had not set down any particular
subjects for discussion withthe Indonesian and Malayan
Prime Ministers nor had they proposed any to him. He-greatly
appreciated both invitations he had received and he regarded
the visits as falling into the general pattern he had been following
of extending his personal contacts with the leaders of
South and South-East Asian States.
CANBERRA. 28TH SEPTEMBER, 1959.