PM Transcripts

FOR PRESS: No. 64+/ 1965
COMMUNICATIONS WITH MR. LEE KEJAN YEW
Statement by the Prime Minister? the Rt. Hon. Sir Robert Menzies
The last thing that I would want to do would be to
comment upon statements made by my colleague, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew,
of' which I have had some reports.
I want to make it quite clear that Mr, Lee has my
warm good wishes and those of my Government and that we all hope
that Singapore will have a successful future. I have already told
him this. It is quite true that when Mr. Lee was in Australia
I had long and useful discussions with him, as did the members
of my Cabinet. It is also true that later on he wrote to me
and that I wrote to him, but these communications, as he agrees,
were personal and 19 of course, cannot disclose their contents.
After hearing from him and considering what he
had to say, I was by no means inactive. I communicated with the
Prime Minister of Malaysia; my Minister for External Affairs
saw him; and ther(_ i-no doubt that our views, which were always
helpful were well known to him as they were to Mr. Lee.
Naturally I am not prepared to disclose the contents of these
communica ~ ons. I think that the important thing to remember in
all these matters is that, while Australia does not determine
the future of Malaysia or the position of its constituent
States, we are profoundly interested in the future well-being
of this part of the world. We hope and believe that Malaysia
and Singapore will be able to work out joint defensive arrangements
of a satisfactory kind. Indeed, with good will on both
sides, we are sure that this result can be achieved.
After the separation of Singapore from Malaysia,
I sent to Mr. Lee a warm expression of our goodwill of our
recognition, of our hopes for the future. Those views still
stand. CA NBERA,
31st Augst, 1965.