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He considered that, provided we held Penang Island, it should be possible to ensure the security of Butterworth Airfield for our continued use. Any redeployment, therefore, should take account of the need for a garrison in Penang.
It was important in our dealings with Australia not to attempt to turn them away from their Pacific outlook and we should therefore proceed carefully when endeavouring to convince the Australians of the need to use their country as a support area for the defence of South East Asia. He had found that although the Australians were very keen on theoretical plans it was hard to get agreement on the practical application particularly where money or politics were involved.
MR. SCOTT (Commonwealth Relations Office) said that now that the Australians were involved in the garrison in Malaya we should be careful not to take any action that would weaken their interest. If, however, we could demonstrate that it was also an area of American interest as the left flank of their defensive position in the Pacific, he believed the Australians would agree with our redeployment policy more readily.
MR. WALLACE (Colonial Office) said that if we were considering the move to Borneo we should carry out the transition gradually with the accent on the training value of the area, otherwise there was a danger that such a policy might lead to pressure on us to leave Malaya and Singapore before we were ready.
LORD MOUNTBATTEN said that the Navy required a dockyard in the Far East theatre. Now that Hong Kong Dockyard had been closed Singapore was the only modern dockyard conveniently available. If we were to leave Singapore, the Navy would have to use dockyards in South East Australia, which was a very long way from the likely areas of operation. The building of an alternative dockyard at Darwin or Perth posed a problem as it would not be possible to get sufficient labour at Darwin, while the construction of a dockyard in the Sound near Perth would be very costly.
SIR WILLIAM DICKSON said we could not ignore the fact that, now that Nepal was receiving aid from China, recruiting for the Gurkha Regiments might diminish and wo must think of other ways of supplementing our manpower. The Dyaks of Borneo or the Fijians might be useful in this connection.
SIR WILLIAM DICKSON, summing up, said that the views expressed by Sir Robert Scott on our future deployment in the Far East deserved very close study. In the first instance the British Defence Coordination Committee should be invited to give their views on the matter, and when they were available, the problem should be raised again at a future meeting. He thanked Sir Robert Scott for his very stimulating ideas.
THE COMMITTEE:
(1)
(2)
Took note of Sir Robert Scotts views and thanked him
warmly for attending the meeting.
Instructed the Secretary to invite the British Defence
Co-ordination Committee (Far East) to set out their views on the future deployment in the Far East, for consideration at a future meeting.
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE, S.W.1.
2ND OCTOBER, 1958.
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