A
CONFIDENTIAL
Alerts. (Amy)
Mr. A.H. Reed. Far East & Pacific Department
Mr. Lee Kuan Yew
The conversation that Mr. Lee had at his dinner party last night was so heavily monopolised by Mr. Lee and by kr. Andrew Roth, a journalist acquaintance who was in Singapore some years ago (before my time) that there was no opportunity for me to talk about your current problems. I dia however get a chance to ask Alex Josey if Mr. Lee was going to see the Tunku; and he replied blandly "No comment: our line is that the Prime Minister is leaving on 2 July and the Tunku arriving on the 3rd.
2.
The others present at the dinner included Lord Selkirk, Sir A. Rose (former Chief Justice, Singapore), Mr. & Mrs. John Wilson (former Manager of the Chartered Bank in Singapore), Mr. & Mrs. Christopher Chataway and Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Roth.
3. The following general points might be of interest:
He had
He
(a) Lee talked at some length about members
of the British Government and their ability to "grow with office". been particularly impressed with Mr. Callaghan's grasp of the problems of office and dismissed Mr. Roth's 'suggestion that Mr. Callaghan had been employed by the Treasury. was critical of Mr. R.H.S. Crossman's pride in adhering to the views which he had held for 15 years before taking office. Of the Prime Minister, he persistently asked Roth (who claimed to be making a study of Mr. Wilson) whether he thought the Prime Minister's motivation was purely tactical and political or whether he thought that the Prime Minister had his eye fixed on long-term objectives. On Roth's judgment that the former was the case, Mr. Lee commented that if this was so his judgment of the future of this country was extremely bleak. But it
was clear he thought nothing of Mr. Roth's Judgment.
(b) He said 'that he sensed that in the 9
months since he was last here there had been a marked deterioration in morale in this country. Too many people did not know where the country was going. He was heavily critical of the worship of equality for its own sake which he now found in this country, and particularly of comprehensive education.
(c) He thought we were right to try to get
into the Common Market but did not believe that de Gaulle would let us in.
CONFIDENT IAL
/(a)
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