the negotiations which held us up.
There is also the need to get the Bill through before the Recess, because the date for the creation of Malaysia is 31st August. The right hon. Member for Middlesbrough, East said that he would be quite prepared to have the Recess delayed, and to put back his holiday, liven if that had been the general wish of the House—and there is no evidence that it is—there is another factor to be taken into account. We are not the only people who will be required to pass legislation. We are passing this modest Bill, but if hon. Members will read the Blue Book they will appreciate what a long and complicated Malaysia Bill the Malayan Parliament will have to pass, and they cannot do that until we have pronounced upon the future sovereignty of these three territories.
I think everyone will agree that we have had an interesting debate. First, I should like to pay my compliments to the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Middlesbrough, East for an extremely thoughtful speech in which he roamed into the wider fields of the future, with regard to the possibility of extending this Federation to embrace other territories in the area, a speech to which I am sure we all listened with great interest. Altogether, I think that it has been a very valuable debate in which we have had the benefit of contributions from hon. Members on both sides of the House, who all, in one way or another—some as Ministers, others as residents in these parts of the world and others as travellers—have been able to bring to the debate personal knowledge and experience.
I join with the right hon. Member for Smethwick (Mr. Gordon Walker) in congratulating all those leading representatives of the various Governments who have taken part in the negotiations. Although, as he said, there was hard bargaining and difficulty in arriving at agreement, none the less we must recognise that, in the end, all made concessions and accepted compromises in order to achieve an objective which is common to them all.
I should also like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to my colleague the Minister of State, Lord Lansdowne, for the very important part which he played as Chairman of the Inter-Governmental Committee. He went backwards and forwards to North Borneo and Sarawak, and he, together with Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussein, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaya, played a very important part in explaining to the representatives of the peoples of North Borneo and Sarawak just what was involved, in allaying their fears and anxieties and in ensuring that those safegards which they felt were necessary were incorporated in the new Constitutions of those two territories.
The right hon. Member for Smethwick said that he regretted the decision to create sovereign military bases in the territory of an independent country. I think that if he looks carefully at the Agreement he will find that that is not the case. We are not creating sovereign military bases. What we are doing—it is Article VI of the Agreement—is something quite different from the bases in Cyprus. What we are doing is to extend the defence agreement which we have with Malaya to embrace the whole of the territories of the new Malaysia Federation. We are, of course, providing that we shall continue to be able to use the defence facilities in Singapore, without which we could not carry out this enlarged responsibility.
My hon. Friend the hon. Lady the Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Miss Vickers) said that Indonesia thought that Britain, even after the creation of the new Federation, would be pulling strings behind the scenes, and she asked me to give some assurance on that point. Obviously, to those in this House such an assurance is not needed, but to those outside it is, perhaps, worth emphasising that once a country is independent it is indeed independent and that we do not try to interfere in its internal affairs, politically or in any other way.
We believe that the success and future prospects and strength of the new Federation will depend essentially upon the two territories of North Borneo and Sarawak looking to the Federation for their future, and not looking to the former colonial Power. That does not mean to say of course, that we shall not wish to maintain, as has been urged by the right hon. Gentleman opposite, the closest relations of friendship with those territories and with the whole of Malaysia and to continue to give them such support and assistance as we can.
