Whose Kite?
Last week, with surprising unanimity, the editorials came out calling for caution in Malaysia. First the Spectator and Tribune, then the Guardian and the Observer. Even the New §'tatesman concluded its anti-Sukarno line with a paragraph advising further talks. It was not, curiously enough, a foreign office kite, but a series of independent conclusions that the Malaysian situation was getting out of hand. Both the Spec- tator and the Observer referred to a possible future referendum in Sabah and Sarawak, per- haps at the same time as the referendum promised for West Irian. We hear that the Indonesians are willing to call a ceasefire and talk roughly along these lines. Some third power or group of powers perhaps would need to act as mediators, and some countries indeed are already active. The Tunku has nothing to lose and everything to gain by conceding. The British, of course, cannot tell him to. But they can advise him. I hope they will.
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