FAREWELL, FAR EAST, headlined the London Evening Standard. In the Daily Express, Labor M.P. Desmond Donnelly called the government's plan "the most stark military withdrawal since the Roman legions were recalled from Britain." With a mingled sense of nostalgia and relief, Britain announced that it will gradually rid itself of the most burdensome vestige of its venerable but faded oriental empire. In a long-expected move, the government issued a Defense Ministry White Paper calling for withdrawal of all 80,000 British troops and civilians from Singapore and Malaysia by the mid-1970s.
The...
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