Woodhull, Chin Siong and Fong came along in Woodhull’s car and asked me to go with them to Selkirk’s place. After some discussion I agreed to go with them. I became a kind of pseudo-spokesman for the group because I had left the group.
By the middle of 1961 the left had gained considerable political strength and the fate of the PAP was hanging in the balance. On Woodhull request, James arranged a meeting with Selkirk to find out what the British would do should the left secure political power. From James’ point of view they secured assurances from Selkirk that the British would not interfere provided power was secured by legal and democratic means.
“Woodhull, Chin Siong and Fong came along in Woodhull’s car and asked me to go with them to Selkirk’s place. After some discussion I agreed to go with them. I became a kind of pseudo-spokesman for the group because I had left the group.”
“They were testing the waters to see whether the British would accept them [The leftist group] as an alternative to the PAP. The British left them in no doubt that may be accepted as an alternative. Selkirk said to me, ‘James, I’d like to tell the Prime Minister that you came and saw me.’ I said ‘Of course, you can say whatever you like.”
“Lord Selkirk told Harry what happened, so Harry was able to build it up as a marvellous coup in order to create a very dramatic event.”
It was not the clandestine meeting that Lee Kuan Yew wrote about in his book ‘The Battle for Merger’. However it was an admission that Chin Siong and his supporters would seek to oust the PAP using democratic means.
After the meeting at Eden Hall, Lee Kuan Yew began to portray the meeting was a plot between the British and PAP leftists to overthrow the PAP with statements at the Legislative Assembly during the vote of confidence. In the ISC Meeting of 11 August 1961, Lee Kuan Yew said because of the meeting, “the Communists had received a strong impression …… that they could make a firm bid for power.”
He was referring to individuals who were members of the PAP at the time of the meeting but now had been expelled because of the chose to abstain during the vote of confidence held 2 days after the meeting.
Lord Selkirk was quick to remind lee Kuan Yew that his political “difficulties were of his own making.”
