British Governmental Institutions, the Regional Information Office in Singapore and the Use of the Official Film in Malaya and Singapore, 1948–1961

Abstract

During the immediate post-war period, crucial historical changes took place which influenced the use of the British official film in Malaya and Singapore. The most important of these were the emergence of Singapore as a strategic outpost at the outset of the Cold War, and Malaya as a vital component of the post-war British economic Sterling-zone system. This article investigates how this context influenced the development of British propaganda policy and official film-making in Malaya and Singapore, and, more specifically, how a group of British governmental institutions, including the Foreign Office Information Research Department, Colonial Office Information Department, and the Regional Information Office in Singapore, reacted to that context, and were involved in that development. The article attempts to establish how these institutions, and specifically the Regional Information Office in Singapore, were active in the use of official British information services and the official film in the region, and over the period from 1948 to 1961, that is, from the consolidation of British official information services in response to the establishment of the unified and anti-colonial Soviet propaganda organisation Cominform in 1948, to the closure of the Regional Information Office in Singapore in 1961. This period also marks the duration of the ‘Malayan Emergency,’ and a particular phase in the propaganda campaign aimed at Singapore and Malaya during which the chief imperative was to slow down the process of decolonisation.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Government [HKBU 240111].

Notes

1 Paul Lashmar and James Oliver, Britain’s Secret Propaganda War (Stroud, 1998), 24.

2 Gerald Krozewski, Money and the End of Empire: British international economic policy and the colonies, 1947–58 (Basingstoke–New York, 2001), 191.

3 Calder Walton, Empire of Secrets: British Intelligence, the Cold War, and the twilight of Empire (London, 2013) (ebook. No page numbers).

4 Ibid.

5 John Keay, Empire’s End: a history of the Far East, from high colonialism to Hong Kong (New York, 1997), 317.

6 S.R. Joey Long, Safe for Decolonization: the Eisenhower administration, Britain and Singapore (Kent, OH, 2011), 10.

7 One name missing here is that of the Colonial Film Unit (1939–1955). There is little or no evidence that this unit was involved in the Malaya/Singapore campaign.

8 Lashmar and Oliver, op. cit., 41.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid., 85.

11 FO 953/757 (P10623/3). Information Policy Department, responses to the Hawes report (see reference 10, below) citing comments made by Sir Malcolm MacDonald, Commissioner General of South-East Asia, on statements heard at a July 1949 Information Officers’ Conference. 15 April 1950, 1,

12 PRO CO 537/6751, Hawes, Stanley, Malayan Film Unit: Proposed Investigation and Reorganisation, 1949–50, 1950. Under a Federation of Malaya White Paper, entitled ‘Report of Mr. Stanley Hawes, The Producer-In-Chief of the Australian National Film Board, On the Unit’ (White Paper no. 27 of 1950).

13 FO 953/757, Untitled report, by Stanley Hawes on ‘the production and distribution of propaganda films in South-East Asia, especially as it affects the advisability of the appointment of a Films Officer in the Regional Information Office’ (referred to in the text of this article as ‘the RIO report’), 3 April 1950, 1.

14 Ibid.

15 FO 953/757, P10623/3. Information Policy Department, responses to the Hawes recommendation of the appointment of a films officer in the Regional Information Office, comments by David MacFarlane, Foreign Office, 5 May 1950, 1.

16 Hawes RIO report, 2.

17 Susan L. Carruthers, Winning Hearts and Minds: British governments, the media and colonial counter-insurgency 1944–1960 (London–New York, 1995), 87.

18 Ibid, 73.

19 Ian Aitken (ed.), The Documentary Film Movement: an anthology (Edinburgh, 1998), 41.

20 Hawes RIO report, 4.

21 Long, op. cit., 37.

22 Stephen Dorril, MI6: inside the covert world of Her Majesty’s Secret Intelligence Service (New York), 88.

23 FO 953/757, P10623/3. Information Policy Department, responses to the Hawes recommendations, citing comments made by Sir Malcolm MacDonald, Commissioner General of South-East Asia, 15 April 1950, 1.

24 Hawes RIO report, 4.

25 Ibid., 5.

26 Ibid.

27 CO 875 22, Federation of Malaya to the Right Honourable Mr. Arthur Creech Jones, Colonial Office, 29 August 1948.

28 Hawes Rio report, 6.

29 Ibid.

30 Eva Orbanz, Journey to a Legend and Back: the British realistic film (Berlin, 1977), 181.

31 Aitken (1998), op. cit., 4–7.

32 Forsyth H. Hardy, John Grierson: a documentary biography (London–Boston, 1979), 220.

33 Ian Aitken, The development of official film-making in Hong Kong, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 32(4) (December 2012), 531–534.

34 FO 953/757, P10623/3. Information Policy Department, responses to the Hawes recommendations, op. cit., citing comments by Sir Malcolm MacDonald, Commissioner General of South-East Asia, 15 April 1950, 1.

35 Hawes Rio report, 5.

36 PRO CO 537/6751, Hawes, Stanley, Malayan Film Unit: Proposed Investigation and Reorganisation, 1949–50, 1950. Also as a Federation of Malaya White Paper entitled ‘Report of Mr. Stanley Hawes, The Producer-In-Chief of the Australian National Film Board, On the Unit’ (White Paper no. 27 of 1950), 4 (page numberings here are from the White Paper).

37 Ibid., 6.

38 Ibid., 18.

39 FSO 769/50, Memorandum from Federal Secretariat Kuala Lumpur to Malcolm MacDonald, 2 June 1950.

40 Aitken (2012), op. cit., 540–541.

41 Hawes RIO report, 3.

42 Ibid., 8.

43 FO953/757, P10623/5, Ralph Murray, IRD, to FO Information Policy Department, Far East, 21 June 1950

44 CO 875 22, Circular 9601247, Arthur Creech Jones, Staffing of Public Relations Departments, 28 June 1948.

45 CO 875 22, Federation of Malaya, to the Right Honourable Mr. Arthur Creech Jones, Colonial Office, 29 August 1948.

46 CO 875 22, Circular 9601247, Arthur Creech Jones, Staffing of Public Relations Departments, 28 June 1948.

47 CO 875 22, Federation of Malaya, letter to the Right Honourable Mr. Arthur Creech Jones, Colonial Office, 29 August 1948.

48 FO 953/757, Malcolm MacDonald, to Warner (no Christian name given), FO, 15 April 1950.

49 Ibid.

50 FO 953/757, Malcolm MacDonald, to FO, 29 August 1950.

51 Carruthers, op. cit., 91.

52 FO953/757, P10623/5, Ralph Murray, IRD, to FO Information Policy Department, Far East, 21 June 1950.

53 Ibid., 93.

54 Ibid.

55 FO953/757, P10623/5, Ralph Murray, IRD, to FO Information Policy Department, Far East, 21 June 1950.

56 FO 953/757, Ralph Murray, IRD, to Office of the Commissioner General South-East Asia, 7 July 1950.

57 Lashmar and Oliver, op. cit., 90–91.

58 Ibid., 85.

59 FO 953/757 (P10623/3), Minutes of a meeting of the Information Policy Department, Far East, 15 April 1950. Comments by Ralph Murray, 8 May 1950.

60 FO 953/757 (P10623/3), Minutes of a meeting of the Information Policy Department Far East, 15 April 1950. Hand-written comments by Tom Hodge dated 24 May 1950.

61 FO 953/757 (P10623/3), Minutes of a meeting of the Information Policy Department Far East, 15 April 1950. Hand-written comments by Tom Hodge, dated 24 June 1950.

62 Aitken (2012), op. cit., 540.

63 Ibid., 542.

64 Ibid.

65 CO 1027/194, White Paper: Overseas Information Services, March 1959, Cmd. 685, 3.

66 Ibid.

67 Ibid., 7.

68 Ibid.

69 Ibid.

70 Ibid.

71 Ibid., 1.

72 Ibid., 3.

73 Ibid., 6.

74 FO 953/757 (P10623/3), Minutes of a meeting of the Information Policy Department, Far East, 15 April 1950. Comments by Ralph Murray dated 8 May 1950.

75 DO 35/9658, Regional Conference of Information Officers from Posts in South-East Asia. Held in Singapore, 2–6 May 1960.

76 Lashmar and Oliver, op. cit., 41.

77 Ibid., 85.

78 Ibid., 86.

79 FO1110/1165, Desmond Packenham, Singapore RIO, to Brian Shepherd, IRD London, 2 May 1958.

80 FO1110/1165, unsigned IRD letter to Desmond Packenham, 2 July 1958.

81 Ibid.

82 London Declaration (1949). Issued by the 1949 Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference. Marked the birth of the new ‘Commonwealth of Nations,’ by allowing countries other than the existing Dominions to join the Commonwealth. Specifically drawn up with reference to the issue of the continuing membership of the Commonwealth by India.

83 Long, op. cit., 19.

84 Lashmar and Oliver, op. cit., 34.

85 Carruthers, op. cit., 148.

86 Dorill, op. cit., 239.

87 DO 35/9658, BIS 17/165/1, from I.C. Edwards, Director of Information Services, BIS Karachi, to Ben Cockram, CRO, 9 May 1960.

88 Ibid.

89 D35/9658O, J.S. Ellis, to Ben Cockram, CRO, 10 May 1960.

90 D35/96580, INF 83/29/3, Donald Kerr, Director of Information, BIS, New Delhi, to Ben Cockram, 17 May 1960.

91 D35/96580, Summary of Report on South East Asian Information Officers’ Conference, Singapore, 1960. Undated and unsigned.

92 DO 35/9658, from Ben Cockram to undisclosed recipients, 2 June 1960.

93 DO 192/2, 45/51/1, Charles Beauclerk report, attached to a letter from John Langston, Films Division COI, to Jack Hughes, CRO, 22 November 1960.

94 Ibid., Appendix C, 1.

95 Ibid., Appendix C, 4.

96 Ibid., Appendix F, 1.

97 DO 192/2 (45/51/1), S. Ellis to J.H. Reiss, Information Division, CRO, 10 Downing Street, 24 February 1961.

98 Beauclerk, op. cit., Appendix C, 3.

99 Ibid.

100 Ibid., Appendix F, 2.

101 Orbanz, op. cit., 181.

102 Beauclerk, op. cit., Appendix F, 2.

103 Ibid.

104 Ibid., Appendix C, 3.

105 Ibid., 1.

106 Ibid., Appendix F, 1.

107 Ibid., main section of report, 3.

108 Ibid., 5–7.

109 DO 192/2 (ISD 45/51/1), CRO memo, typed notes by J.H. Reiss, in response to the Beauclerk report, 13 December 1960.

110 DO 192/2 (ISD 45/51/1), INF 17/86/10, J.S. Ellis, Director of Information, UKIS Kuala Lumpur, to J.H. Reiss, Information Division, CRO, 24 February 1961.

111 Ibid.

112 Lashmar and Oliver, op. cit., 138–139.

113 DO 192/2 (ISD 45/51/1), INF 17/86/10, J.S. Ellis, Director of Information, UKIS Kuala Lumpur to J.H. Reiss, Information Division, CRO, 24 February 1961.

114 Nicholas J. White, British Business in Post-Colonial Malaysia, 1957–70: ‘neo-colonialism’ or ‘disengagement’? (London–New York, 2004), 206.

115 Vernon L. Porritt, British Colonial Rule in Sarawak 1946–1963 (New York, 19970, 28.

116 White, op. cit., 16–17.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ian Aitken

Ian Aitken is a professor of film studies at the Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. His research interests are in realist film theory and documentary film studies. In addition, he is the recipient of six Hong Kong government competitive grants awarded in order to carry out research into documentary film in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore over the 1945–1970 period. His most recent book publications include Hong Kong Documentary Film (EUP, 2014), Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film (ed.) (Routledge, 2013), Lukácsian Film Theory and Cinema (MUP, 2012), and Documentary Film: critical concepts in media and cultural studies (ed.) (4 vols) (Routledge, 2012). His 1990 book Film and Reform: John Grierson and the documentary film movement was also re-published by Routledge in 2013. His article ‘The Development of Official Film-Making in Hong Kong’ was published in Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 32(4) (December 2012).