2
Conclusion
CONFIDENTIAL
8. In spite of their brashness and authoritarianism the Singaporeans deserve our support. They will survive any crisis. It is a good, honest Government. Sympathetic Friend gets 75 per cent, Stern Critic 25 per cent.
9.
Need for a modern residence.
10. Tribute to staff. (Paragraphs 17-19.)
(Confidential) Sir,
Introduction
Singapore,
9 April, 1974.
In my farewell despatch* from Kuwait I wrote in happy reminiscence that life was people and I had liked and enjoyed the people of Kuwait. The same is intensely the case in Singapore. This people—they work, they laugh, they chatter in an endless movement. There is no time for rest and little for sleep but still time for fun and for gaiety. For anything you ask the answer is "Can, can". There are no excuses. They get on with it. A problem is to be dealt with, tackled quickly, determinedly and directly. There are no carpets to sweep it under. It does not matter what it is, economic stress, threats of unemployment, pollution, crime, drugs, water shortage-these people go at their problems bravely and bald-headedly with an energy that leaves the occidental gasping.
2. They are friendly, direct, self-confident, positive. They have no complexes, no post-colonial bitterness, no resentment from the days of the white men's clubs and their memsahibs. There is no blame for 1942: that was history. The British had their faults but they created Singapore. They left a decent Administration and Singapore has built on it. If you are British you will get a square deal even if it is a tough deal. You will be judged on the present and on what you are, not what you were. You have no special position but there is no prejudice against you. You can do business if you have something good to sell and you can make good friends who will be loyal to you. These people will smile at you and go on smiling when you smile back.
3. The real Singapore is a vibrant, warm, wonderful city, bubbling and humming with life. If you move through the markets and stalls, the shops, the schools, the housing estates, you can feel this city throbbing. The crowds who came out to greet The Queen were not arranged in advance; they were spon- taneous; they were warm and friendly and curious. This is what really matters: the people of this city who give it its existence and its justification. They will survive and prosper. Singapore has made it and will go on making it-you will never get these people down.
Lee Kuan Yew
4. In his brilliant despatch† of 8 September, 1970, my predecessor and fellow Jerseyman, Sir Arthur de la Mare, gave a portrait of Lee Kuan Yew on which it would be impossible to improve. It was a very sympathetic portrait but it nevertheless did not hide Lee's faults.
* DR_511/70.
† Not printed.
CONFIDENTIAL
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