Lee Kuan Yew in London

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Lee Kuan Yew in London is a dramatic account, told mainly through London and Singapore newspaper reports as Britain decide to withdraw its forces from the Republic of Singapore by the end of 1971, thus ending a military association with the Malayan Peninsula, which had existed for 150 years. Lee Kuan Yew's sudden flight to London a few hours before the decision was made was not to try to stop the inevitable course of history. He had been told this would be in the mid-1970's, and he had made arrangements accordingly. Now, unexpectedly, the date was to be advanced by several years. Mr. Lee went to London to counsel delay, and to make provisions for speeding up Singapore's own defence plans. Here, as reported in the newspapers, are the arguments he used, the people he saw and the interviews he gave, in his efforts to persuade the British Government of the wisdom of delaying their accelerated withdrawal at least until the end of 1971.