Brockway) and the hon. Member for Leyton (Mr. Sorensen) have all recently been to Malaysia themselves, and I hope that I am not putting words into their mouths when I say that they would probably agree that there is now widespread and general support in these countries for the new Federation.
Mr. Fenner Brockway (Eton and Slough) Not general.
Mr. Fisher No doubt the hon. Member for Eton and Slough will make a speech on this subject, and I shall be interested to listen to it, because I thought quite genuinely that as a result of his visit he had been persuaded that support was very general throughout the territories. No doubt we shall hear from him later.
Mr. Gilbert Longden (Hertfordshire, South-West) Will my hon. Friend be good enough to confirm or otherwise that Mr. Narasimhan was sent out by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to these territories and that as a result of the visit he was quite satisfied that there was general support?
Mr. Fisher I am glad to confirm what my hon. Friend said. He was personally satisfied, as my hon. Friend pointed out.
To resume the narrative, in December, 1961, the Singapore Assembly passed a Motion supporting Malaysia in principle, and in January, 1962, the British and Malayan Governments appointed the Cobbold Commission, which visited North Borneo and Sarawak between February and April, 1962, and in the process interviewed over 4,000 people. The Commission's findings were unanimous in favour of the Federation and they estimated that two-thirds of the people of these two Colonies supported the federal idea provided that safeguards could be devised to meet their special conditions. I think that we have succeeded in meeting that point since then.
Further talks were held in London between the British and Malayan Governments in July last year, and it was then agreed to establish Malaysia by 31st August this year and meanwhile to set up an Inter-Governmental Committee under the chairmanship of my noble Friend the Minister of State, to work out the detailed arrangements and the appropriate safeguards, to which I have referred, for North Borneo and Sarawak. The first meeting of that Inter-Governmental Committee was held in Jesselton on 30th August, 1962, and it held its last plenary meeting on 20th December in Kuala Lumpur. Its unanimous Report was published on 27th February this year and in March the Legislative Councils in Sarawak and in North Borneo adopted nemine contradicente the recommendations of the Inter-Governmental Committee, which meant that the way was clear for the inclusion of these two territories in Malaysia.
Elections this year in both Colonies have resulted in what I can rightly describe as walk-over victories for the pro-Malaysian parties. In Sarawak, these parties together hold 24 out of the 36 seats. There are seven independent members, who are divided about fifty-fifty on the proposals, and the only party which has any hesitation about Malaysia is the Sarawak United People's Party, which holds only five seats out of the total of 36. In North Borneo, similarly, of the 125 district council candidates elected, we know of none who are anti-Malaysia. It is by and from these people that the Legislative Council is chosen.
At the end of the year, discussions were resumed between Malaya and Singapore to work out the detailed terms, and agreement was reached quite quickly except on a few matters. The most difficult of these, as is practically always the case, was finance, especially the apportionment of Federal revenues collected in Singapore. During the discussions, it became clear that agreement on the financial issues was not likely to be achieved without agreement on a common market for Malaysia.
Those financial problems affected the whole economic life of Malaya and Singapore. It was, therefore, probably not surprising that at the final talks recently in London, a great deal of time, patience and understanding was needed to resolve them. I hope that my right hon. Friend will not mind my saying in front of him that even though he is never afraid of long hours and hard work, it looked at one time as if the whole concept of Malaysia might be in jeopardy at
