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Page 71 able to take practical advantage of the opportunities thus provided, the making of these various offers undoubtedly had a stimulating effect upon Asian “ morale.

5. Our own announcement that we were substantially increasing our contribution towards technical assistance was very well received.

6. One decision which I personally regret was that Ministers should be free to give their main speeches to the Press immediately after they had spoken. While this only slightly affected the tone of the speeches at Singapore, we must try to revert at subsequent meetings to the former rule of privacy if we are to preserve the free and friendly character of the debates.

7. It was a happy coincidence for the newly-elected Singapore Government that it had been decided to hold this year's meeting there. They certainly made every possible effort to ensure the efficiency of the arrangements and the comfort of the delegates. Their expenditure as hosts amounted to nearly £40,000, but they seemed to regard it as money well spent. The Victoria Memorial Hall was an excellent setting for the conference, though the acoustics were poor and not improved by the failure of many delegates to make proper use of their microphones. The preliminary stages proved a heavy tax upon the Singapore officials and they would readily agree that the situation was only saved from a breakdown by the help that the very competent and experienced members of the United Kingdom official delegation were fortunately able to give.

8. Mr. Marshall, the Chief Minister of Singapore, presided over the conference and had a great personal success. He is quite a newcomer to politics even in Singapore and had certainly had no experience of so high-powered a meeting. He was in considerable trepidation at the prospect of occupying the chair at it, but he soon showed himself calm, tactful, courteous and decisive and the compliments paid to him on the last day were thoroughly well earned. His performance was all the more commendable as he was throughout the week of the conference beset by urgent and anxious problems arising out of the local political situation and by threats to his own position as Chief Minister. Mr. Lim Yew Hock, the Minister of Labour, who only a few months ago was a clerk in Mr. Marshall's law office, deputised one afternoon in Mr. Marshall's obligatory absence and rose equally to the occasion.

9. The delegations of Singapore, the Federation of Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak were as usual attached to the United Kingdom delegation, but in view of the altered status of the first two I insisted upon their acting in the conference itself as independent units, though I am glad to think that we were of very considerable use to them behind the scenes. They came to us constantly for guidance and were very grateful for the ready response. "They took a useful part in the discussions and I feel that it had a salutary effect on a number of other delegations, not excluding the Americans, to see such effective examples of "colonialism" in action.

10. It was obviously very instructive too for the Asians to see Singapore; many of them in private conversation contrasted rather wistfully the conditions in their own countries with Singapore's clean streets, lack of flies and absence of beggars.

11. The diversity of interests embraced by the Colombo Plan was well illustrated by the variety of offices held by heads of delegation in their respective Governments. Eight were drawn from Foreign Ministries and there were others from Finance, Economics, Industry and Commerce, Agriculture and Planning, whilst the United States delegation was led by Mr. Hollister, the Chief of the International Co-operation Administration.

12. There were still far too many social functions, but perhaps fewer took the form of cocktail parties, a very welcome relief. Several delegations cheated, as after agreeing with our initiative to cut out cocktail parties, they either promoted or connived at the giving of entertainments, not by the delegation itself but by their Consuls-General or other permanent representatives in Singapore. The Ceylonese delegate blandly broke the agreement by giving a cocktail party on the opening day.

13. The efficiency of the United Kingdom delegation did not suffer in any way from the fact that I was the only member of it who had ever attended a previous

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