Withdrawal from Singapore and Malaysia

Perhaps the most blatant breach of election promises so far has been the reversal of the promise to withdraw all military forces from Singapore and Malaysia. New Zealanders had the galling experience of learning this not direct from the Prime Minister but from the citizen of a foreign country—Lord Carrington, the British Foreign Secretary. After secret talks with Mr Kirk he announced on TV with great satisfaction that New Zealand was retaining membership of ANZUK and keeping forces there. The fear of British imperialists that a N.Z. Labour Government might honour its promise to the N.Z. people and withdraw from intervention there were set at rest. The BBC was boasting about it for a week afterwards.