Seeking Stories of the British Bases and Military Withdrawal

Lkshis SG

Dear fellow Singaporeans

I am a Singaporean historian looking to speak to people who remember the British bases and their withdrawal in the early 1970s. The withdrawal was the first major crisis independent Singapore faced. The 56 bases, contributing a fifth of the country’s GDP, were its largest industry, and the pullout threatened the livelihood of one-sixth of the labour force, including an estimated 8,000 amahs.

The pullout also transformed the economy, society and landscape of Singapore in the 1970s. Most of the bases were converted to commercial use, while many base workers underwent a 3-month retraining crash course. Technical and vocational education also expanded, as new laws sought to increase labour productivity and attract foreign capital investment.

These developments resonate with us today: the retraining programmes, the mobilisation of the young, the philosophy that ‘no one owes Singapore a living’. There is also a forgotten social history to unearth: how retrenched base employees coped with the crisis and how workers adjusted to new work routines.

If you remember the British bases and rundown, or have a family member, relative or friend who does, kindly contact me to lend your voice to an important episode of our national story.

Please pass this message along to those who might be interested.

Thank you.

Loh Kah Seng (Dr)
Visiting Research Fellow
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
Email: [email protected]

angel3070 SG

It is good that Britain withdrew the bases.

But PAP govt, always wanting the backing of the west, invited U.S to set up bases.

Serving British interests

"Now, from all the already released records in London as well as other historical researches, it is clear that in launching Operation Cold Store, Lee Kuan Yew was serving the then strategic interests of Britain which wanted Singapore to continue to provide a forward military base in Southeast Asia," said Lim

"It is also now an undeniable fact that Lee worked earlier for the Japanese military during the Occupation making Britain's English materials available in Japanese-language for the occupiers," he added.

Lim was a graduate of Singapore's prestigious Raffles College and a medical doctor trained in University of Malaya, which was then located in Singapore.

"I was also a founder of University of Malaya's Socialist Club which became the cradle for many politicians and intellectuals in both Malaysia and Singapore who fought for independence," he recalled with a sense of pride.

"In those days, anti-colonialism was a very powerful and popular sentiment even in Singapore … I helped found the People's Action Party (PAP) to fight for the freedom of Singapore from British rule and to reunite it with Peninsula to form an united, non-communal and progressive Malaya but when Lee turned right wing and started serving British interests, the party split and I left to join the Socialist Front," he explained.

"We certainly opposed to Singapore being maintained as a military base for Britain and that was why Lee had to crush the Left in Singapore at all cost … The Left in Singapore also opposed to the 1963 merger because we thought it was an opportunistic adventure on the part of Lee who wanted to exploit Tunku Abdul Rahman's anti-communism to suppress the Left in Singapore … we wanted merger but not in the 1963 version which proved to be an utter failure just two years later in 1965.

"I was completely English-educated," stressed Lim, which was obviously a sarcastic and subtle rebuttal to the now stereotyped and widespread notion that the Left in Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s was a "Chinese-educated" phenomenon.

http://www.singaporedemocrat.org/articlelimhocksiew.html

weasel1962 SG

Hi Dr Loh

You might want to contact the RAF seletar association at seletar.net who might be able to put you in touch with people connected with the seletar airbase. One of the contacts (Mr David Taylor) is listed in the website.

Hope this helps.

Best Regards

Lkshis SG

Thanks for this, I will do a search.

cheers

LKS

Rock^Star SG

jus send an email to the mindef feedback branch. They will direct you to the relevant authority. Email can be found in the mindef website i believe.

Shotgun SG

I suppose you've had a chat with AP Farrell already? =)

Fatum SG

there were 56 bases ?! ....

Shotgun SG

Actually, the pull out didn't really transform the economy that much initially. Thanks to the Vietnam war, those military installation including Sembawang Naval Base was put to good use.

Atobe SG

There is a possibility of 56 British Military Installations in Singapore, while the obvious ones are well known, some of the lesser known have given way to the modernising of Singapore.

Other then the domestic help employed by the families of the married British Military Personnels, the other economic beneficiaries of their presences will include the many landlords that rented their homes, the locals recruited to civilian administrative posts, and the locals recruited to serve as Military Camp Police, and also locals recruited to provide their skills in the repair and maintenance of the military hardware, and act as liason in commercial transactions with local suppliers.

The Naval Base - is the largest British Base covering the area that begins at the eastern edge outlined by the present Sembawang Road till its end at the Straits of Johor; the western edge is where the present Woodland HDB blocks lie adjacent to the Woodlands ICQ, and the southern edge outlined by the present SLE.

The main entrance to the Naval Base was located at the present day traffic light junction at Canberra Road and Sembawang Road.

The present day Sun Plaza and all the adjacent HDB flats are located in a desolate part of the land area within the Naval Base, with the Admiralty House sitting on a hill crest that serves as the residence of the Admiral of the Far East Fleet - now used as a Clubhouse with karaoke and swimming pool facilities.

The main feature of the Naval Base is the wharf and dry docks that is part of the present day Sembawang Shipyard, and had employed more then 10,000 locals to man the various specialist workshops that still exist in their original architecture.

There must be another 5,000 workers employed to keep the Naval Base in good condition in the various posts of civilian administrators, contractors, civilian operators of the different mess for officers and other rank and file.

The Sembawang Air Base - sits on the southern edge of the Naval Base was used as a Royal Navy Air Station.

Local workers are employed as civilian administrators to manage the running of the air base - as well as the administration of logistics.

Changi Air Base - sits to the east of Singapore island, and consist of a single 1 km runway next to the Changi beach shore line.

The original Changi Beach shoreline runs about 500 to 1000 meters left of the ECP leading into the present Changi Airport.

The old runway which faces Terminal 3 is the original RAF runway - which was made longer and upgraded to bear the weight of heavier modern commercial airlines; with the remaining portions of the present Changi International Airport facilites all sitting entirely on reclaimed land.

Seletar Air Base - sits on the edge of the northern shores of Singapore island, and had a single air strip sitting on a sprawling greenery that remains about the same to this day - if one does not forget to include the present day Seletar Golf Club.

Besides the single runway, there exist also a separate slipway that allow operation of Flying Boats.

The pilots and Officers with families lived a lifestyle that is almost a transplanted settings from Britain, while some others will live off-the-base in rented homes around the air base and as far away as Serangoon Gardens, Seletar Estate, and Sembawang Hills Estate.

Tengah Air Base - is the most important of the three RAF bases, with a single runway, and with the property about the same as its historical past.

The set up of Tengah Air Base is near identical to Changi Air Base, and seems to be strategically placed to cover different defense arcs of anticipated air threats.

Besides these main bases, there were the other logistic bases located at - Sungei Kadut - near to the railway track crossing; the Hong Kah Ammo Base facility; Tanglin Barracks at Dempsey Road - which also included the Military Detention Facility; the Ayer Rajah facility; Buller Camp in Queenstown; Mowbray Camp in Ulu Pandan; Gillman Barracks at Alexandra Road; Selarang Barracks at Upper Changi; Gloucester Barracks; The Slim Barracks; Fort Siloso and Fort Serapong at Sentosa (previously known as Pulau Blakang Mati).

There was the Britania Club with a NAAFI market located at Beach Road facing Raffles Hotel. This property belongs to the British Military, and is the club house for the Rank and File of all the services.

There was a C-in-C residence located near the Kheam Hock Road - Dunearn Road area, and known as Command House as seen in a brass signage at the gate post.

Besides the main British Military Forces, they also created the British Army Depot Police that consisted of locals being recruited to guard the various British Military Bases and Logistic Facilities - and were located at 3 separate bases, one of which was at 3 Base Ordnance Depot off Alexandra Road.

There was also the British Naval Police Force and the RAF Police Auxillaries - both manned by British Officers commanding locals recruited into the British Service.

Lkshis SG

That's pretty good Atobe - you don't happen to have worked in the bases?

Farrell I know but I'm not looking at the military side of the history but how the rundown affected the economy and society.

Atobe SG

That's pretty good Atobe - you don't happen to have worked in the bases?

Farrell I know but I'm not looking at the military side of the history but how the rundown affected the economy and society.

No way, that will put me as old as LKY, but I know of neighbors who rented their homes in the 1960s, met individuals working as chefs in the mess, also some who had worked as contractors, and of course the volunteers to the Auxiliary Police Force.

The withdrawal of the British Military from Singapore was quite well organised as Harold Wilson gave his assurance to Tunku and LKY that the withdrawal will be conducted in phases that will not jeopardised the security of Southeast Asia, and also to LKY's position in the local politics.

With each phased pull-out, the vacated bases were quickly put into use either by the SAF, or handed over to the newly set up Singapore Government Linked Companies to fully utilise the assets for commercial applications.

Singapore had the good fortune of the advise from Dutch Economic Consultant - Dr Albert Winsemius - who had also recommended LKY to visit Cyprus and study how they had capitalised on the withdrawal of the British Military from Cyprus and convert the naval bases for commercial use.

There was no major structural disruption that caused severe negative shocks to the Singapore economy, no strikes, no jobs losses that left massive unemployment for long period as experienced by those affected by the economic downturn of 2004.

‘Singapore Straits Time, 11 January 1978 – reported Lee Kuan Yew publicly acknowledged for the first time – Singapore owe a debt to Harold Wilson ’ (*1) - when as a Private UK Citizen, he was invited as a Special Guest of Singapore and feted to a State Banquet in his honor.

That debt was two fold - the first for saving LKY and his cabinet from being arrested by Tunku's Federal Government, and the second for saving Singapore's economy from a disastrous collapse from the sudden withdrawal of the British Military.

Lkshis SG

It was Malta, otherwise you are quite spot on. ;)

Let me know if there are some pple I can still talk to.

Herzog_Zwei SG

It is good that Britain withdrew the bases.

But PAP govt, always wanting the backing of the west, invited U.S to set up bases.

http://www.singaporedemocrat.org/articlelimhocksiew.html

Another cheebye hum who doesn't know when to shut up and sit down on a long nail.

Atobe SG

It was Malta, otherwise you are quite spot on. ;)

Let me know if there are some pple I can still talk to.

Sorry for the mix-up, always got the two islands mixed up - must be their proximity being in the same region, and both with Greek influence.

The following blog had some details that will be relevant to your research, which also featured a letter from you -http://victorkoo.blogspot.com/2009/11/british-withdrawal-from-singapore.html

You could try to get a list of academecians, who were in the Political Science and Economics Faculties at NUS during the 1960s through 1970s - who will probably have observed the impact and written papers about the withdrawal of the British Military on the local economy.

The other source will be the Straits Times archive that reported the situation during that period, and with most of the prints now stored in electronic format and transferred to the National Library.

The digitised format beats the micro-films, which can be time consuming even when it will show more details.