know that many of these Bills are rather technical, but I have never before heard any Minister dismiss it completely and say that he did not propose to discuss the contents of it. There are certain of the contents which are of great importance, such as those dealing with citizenship, and so on. No doubt many of your Lordships will follow his example and will not discuss the Bill very much. It has, in any case, been rushed through at the end of the Session, and even if anybody had wanted to put down any Amendments—and I do not believe anybody will want to do so—there would not have been the opportunity.
I know that the reason for rushing the Bill through both Houses is because the Federation is to come into existence an August 31; otherwise I should be inclined to agree with the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd, that such an historic Bill deserves a better Parliamentary occasion—which means better Parliamentary time—than this one is getting. We know how much time we rightly spend on our own affairs, but I have always felt, since I have been in Parliament, that it is a pity that many of the very important Bills relating to the Commonwealth are generally put in at a time when, to say the least, there is not a big House. They always seem either to be on a Friday morning or on the occasion of a Royal Garden Party, and that is a pity. However, those who speak do so with knowledge and with great sympathy; perhaps that makes up for the small House so far as attendance is concerned.
As this is possibly the last occasion on which we shall have an opportunity of discussing at any length the problems of Malaya, since the territory of Malaysia will be independent on August 31, and we do not normally discuss the affairs of independent countries in this House, perhaps I may be allowed to say a word or two about a man whom I consider to be a really great man of our time, the father, to a large extent, both of Malaya and of Malaysia. I refer to Tunku Abdul Rahman. I first met him 32 or 33 years ago. I was practising at that time in the Settlement of Penang. I corrected the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd, who described Penang as a protectorate; it was, of course, the oldest British settlement in the Far East. The Tunku at that time was an assistant district officer, just over the frontier; in his father's State of Kedah. We have been great friends ever since, and I have seen the growth of this remarkable man into the great leader and father figure that he is at the moment and will, I hope, continue to be.
So far as Sarawak is concerned, I should like just to recall to the House the memory of the late Sir David Gammans, who was very much interested in all these problems of South-East Asia. He served in Malaya for years, and, in the early part of 1946, he and I were sent out by the then Government of this country to advise on the desirability of the secession 950 of Sarawak from Rajah Brooke—the White Rajah as he was called—to His late Majesty the King. We had a very interesting tour of the country at that time, which was made possible—as it was only just immediately after the war—by the kindness of the noble and gallant Earl, Lord Mountbatten of Burma, who at that time was Supreme Commander in the Far East, in placing a naval vessel at our disposal.
One point that I think is not often realised, is how much success there has been in Malaya in inter-racial harmony. I do not know of any country in the world other than Malaya where, as it were, the immigrant population, or at least the population of descendants of immigrants, is almost equal to the indigenous population. There are Chinese, Malays and, of course, a very large population of Indians. Throughout these years there has been this very happy relationship at a time when in the rest of the world it seemed almost impossible for the people of different races and religions to get on well together in one country. In Malaya, however, they have all settled down and worked for the prosperity of the country and for their own prosperity in an exceedingly amiable way.
We must pay tribute not only to the Tunku, who I think is most responsible for that harmony, but also to Tun Abdul Razak, Mr. Tan Siew Sin, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, to whom the noble Marquess paid due and proper tribute, and to Mr. V. T. Sambanthan, the Leader of the Indian Congress in Malaya. Like the noble Lord, Lord Shepherd, I, too, wish to congratulate Malaya on the success of the £5 million issue of Federation of Malaya 6½ per cent. stock, which was oversubscribed within one minute of the stock opening. That, I think, is a very good indication of the strength of Malaya in the financial market, in the City. It shows what the City of London thinks of Malaya, and also of the future of this territory—a very handsome tribute; and I congratulate Malaya, and particularly the Governor of the Bank
