COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
SPEECH BY
The Rt Hon. J. G. GORTON, M. P.
ON
AMl TO MALAYSIA AND SING 0
( Ministerial Statement
-[ From the ' Parliamentary Debates', 1S April 1969]
Mr G40RTON ( Higgins-Prime Minister)-
by leave-In the course of my statement
to this House on 25th February I
said: we shall continue our efforts to help with
the training of local Malaysians and Singaporean
forces which we expect will be increased in size
and capacity, and to provide financial assistance
for defence aid aimed at assisting Malaysia and
Singapore to build up their own defence capacity.
We have been actively pursuing these purposes.
I am now happy to say that
following discussions with the Malaysian
Government we will make a gift to
Malaysia of ten of our Sabre aircraft,
together with spares, ground support equipment
and a simulator for training purposes.
When the Sabres are delivered they will, be
in Al condition with an operational life
before them of at least 6 years. To train
Malaysian pilots and ground staff to fly and
maintain the Sabres we will send to Butterworth
nearly ninety Royal Australian Air
Force instructors and personnel. The aircraft
with their spares and so on will, be
by way of addition to our current Defence
Aid Programme. The costs involved in
operating the aircraft will naturally be
borne by the Malaysian Government and
the other costs involved will be met from
the present uncommitted portion of our
Defence Aid Programme for Malaysia. As
pilots and-ground staff are trained, the
Royal Malaysian Air Force will be able to
14857/ 69 convert the squadron of Sabres from a
training to an operational fighter unit.
, We believe that this contribution on our
part will be of help to the Malaysian
Government in that it will provide an
essential transitional step towards the
eventual acquisition of supersonic aircraft
which we understand the Malaysian
Government has as its long-term aim.
Further, it will enable this step to be taken
without the necessity for the Malaysian
Government to divert very considerable
resources away from the programme of
social and economic development which it
rightly regards as essential to the stability
of the region. Malaysia is also seeking our
help in training operators and technicians
for the radars it is acquiring-themselves
costl-y enough-and in basic training for its
pilots. These requests are under study-and
I merely say at this stage that we will do
what we can to help.
We have also had certain discussions
with the Singapore Government about
directions in which we might aid Singapore
defence plans. I mention here only one
particular aspect. It is that we have notified
our willingness to help the Singapore
Government with the training of certain
operators and technicians required for the
Bloodhound defensive missiles which the
Singapore Government is proposing to
acquire from the United Kingdom Govern-
ment. These actions on our part should be
seen in the context of our continuing
association with our four partners in the
Five Power arrangement-New Zealand,
Malaysia,, Singapore, and the United
Kingdom-and also of our and their
common concern with the security of the
South East Asia region. As I made clear in
my statement to the House on 25th
February 1969, our activities are in no way
directed against the interests of any other country in the region but are intended to
strengthen the stability of the whole; this
we believe is well understood and accepted.
What we are doing now is in fact making
one more contribution to our long-standing
defence aid programme, the purpose of
which is to strengthen the defence capacity
of Malaysia and Singapore within the
framework of a broad concept of regional
security and regional co-operation.
Printed for the Government of the Commonwealth by W. G. MUR Y at the
Government Printing Office, Canberra