Australia Faces Southeast Asia: The Emergence of a Foreign Policy by Amry Vandenbosch & Mary Belle Vandenbosch

Author:Amry Vandenbosch & Mary Belle Vandenbosch [Vandenbosch, Amry & Vandenbosch, Mary Belle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, Political Science, World, Australian & Oceanian, Asian, General
ISBN: 9780813164939
Google: 5MkfBgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 24506145
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2014-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

AFTER A CABINET MEETING which reviewed progress toward the creation of Malaysia, Barwick issued a statement on March 5, 1963, that “Australia believes that the establishment of Malaysia would contribute to the stability of the region and that it deserves support as a major act of orderly decolonization. Territories with a common administrative background and currency and with close economic and political ties are uniting in independence.”16 When it was reported, apparently erroneously, that Rahman had said that Australia was committed militarily to the defense of Malaysia,17 Barwick stated there was no military alliance with Malaysia. The Australian troops in Malaya were Australia’s contribution to the Commonwealth strategic reserve stationed in Malaya by formal agreement between the United Kingdom and Malaya, but the security of Malaya was a direct concern of Australia.18

With the birth of Malaysia in September, 1963, Indonesia began to prepare a confrontation against Malaysia.19 Mobs attacked and burned the British embassy and looted homes and property of English nationals. The situation became so disturbed that an airlift began removing British, Australian, and New Zealand children from the Djakarta area. Indonesia rejected the Federation of Malaysia, and the Philippine government requested the reduction of its embassy in Kuala Lumpur to the status of a consulate, whereupon Prime Minister Rahman announced on September 16 that his government had severed diplomatic relations with the two states.20 On September 20 the Indonesian government announced the takeover of all British companies in Indonesia, allegedly to insure safety and continued production.21

The Australian government quickly announced its support for Malaysia. Menzies informed the House of Representatives on September 17 that the provision in the British-Malaya defense agreement of 1957 creating the Far East Strategic Reserve (composed of British, Malaysian, Australian, and New Zealand troops), under which the Australian forces helped put down insurrectionary activities, would cover Malaysia.22 Two days later Deputy Prime Minister McEwen stated that “we have made it perfectly clear that we support Malaysia. We are in no doubt that the entire Australian community supports Malaysia.”23

On September 25, Menzies announced in Parliament that Australia would give military assistance to defend Malaysia “in the event of any armed invasion or of any subversive activity supported, directed, or inspired from outside Malaysia.” He pointed out that as far back as 1955 the government had recognized the importance of Malaya to the security of the zone in which Australians lived and that “in consequence Malayan integrity and defence were matters from which we could not and should not stand aloof. . . . But Malaysia, the new nation, is here,” he said. “The processes of its creation have been democratic. The United Nations secretary-general, having appointed suitable persons as examiners, reported that the people of North Borneo and Sarawak desired incorporation into Malaysia. . . . We have publicly and unambiguously said that we support Malaysia, which is a Commonwealth country just as our own is.”24

Calwell replied that the Labor party supported “the concept of Malaysia” and welcomed its creation. “We believe that this experiment

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