Letter from Thomas J. Kiernan to Seán MacBride (Dublin)
(Personal and Confidential)

[matter omitted]

In Calcutta I was crippled with an overdose of police protection. When the plane landed at 4 in the morning, I found myself met by an officer representing the Governor, Mr. P.S. Mathur (who also acts as Information Officer for the Ministry for External Affairs). He had the chief of the security police with him and the local manager of B.O.A.C. Two police walked by my side and slept in an adjoining room in the hotel during the three days of my stay; and a full programme of visits to factories, the zoo, the botanical gardens and such like filled my time. I called on Archbishop Perrier¹ and went with him to the aerodrome to meet His Eminence Cardinal Gilroy² who had a couple of hours' stay en route to Rome. He had been air-sick. Mentioning that 'you will find your friend Archbishop Mannix in very good health', His Eminence asked me to call on him soon in Sydney.

The streets of Calcutta and the corridors of hotels were crowded with refugees sleeping on the ground at night.³ There is a great health drive under way and the factories to which I was brought have dispensaries, and crèches, financed by the factory owners.

Waiting at the Calcutta aerodrome for the morning plane to Singapore, I fell into conversation with a Malayan medical doctor, on the teaching staff of the University of Singapore. He discussed Partition, which he understood was inescapable because almost all the Six-County inhabitants are Protestants and all the Twenty-six Counties population Catholics; and any attempt at national unity would lead to a religious war. I asked him where he had got this fantastic notion. It was from a senior professor in the medical faculty of the University, Professor Strahan,⁴ a graduate of Queen's University, Belfast. As I had a few hours in Singapore I asked him if he could introduce me to Professor Strahan. When we got to the University in Singapore, Professor Strahan was out of the city but the doctor introduced me to three of his colleagues and they were very much interested in hearing a condensation of the partition history.

I am arranging to post our weekly news-sheets and some partition literature to both Mr. P.S. Mathur, M.Sc., 8 Government Place North, Calcutta and to Dr. G.N. Woodhull, Department of Social Medicine, University of Malaya, Singapore, 3.

Looking down from the low-flying plane at the tin and rubber undertakings and seeing the well-stocked shops, at low prices, and the air of calm and care-free life of the people in Singapore, mainly Chinese and Malayans, I enquired if the newspaper reports and British Government announcements of Communist and bandit activity in Malaya were entirely justified. From what I heard and saw - admittedly only a superficial look - and from reports of quite British supporters, I came to the conclusion that the reports are tremendously exaggerated. I had noticed for a long time that the output of tin from Malaya was being maintained at top level and this seemed to contradict statements of large-scale Communist guerrilla warfare. Singapore is embarking on a $450,000,000 development plan. (The Straits dollar exchanges for half-a-crown Irish). The trade figures are breaking all records and the estimated favourable trade balance for this year is about one thousand million Straits dollars. The Singapore 'Sunday Times' of October 29th (when I left in the morning for Darwin) referring to the big development schemes said; 'While present trade figures may not help in getting outside aid, there should be a greater inducement for that flow of foreign capital, trading investment, that is so urgently sought. But whatever happens in the long run, Malaya must by her own efforts find the bulk of the money for these development plans. They are a challenge and a challenge that must be met as a vital step towards future self-government'. It seemed to me that it is the danger to Britain of Malayan unity for self-government that is the cause of the highly-exaggerated news stories of Communist guerrilla warfare. The country is a great economic asset to Britain, with a reservoir of the cheapest and most efficient labour.

At Darwin I entered Australian soil and recommenced my work in Australia, and from that point my news will be covered, as usual, by official reports. I thought, however, that this personal account of the tailend of my holiday might interest you.