Commonwealth Relations Office and Commonwealth Office: Far East and Pacific Department:...

This series contains records of the Far East and Pacific Department relating to Singapore, Malaya and Malaysia, Brunei, Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand, and to matters of general Commonwealth interest in the Far East, including defence matters (particularly the confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia, and Commonwealth interests in Indo-China).

Records of the Far East and Pacific Department and its successors from January 1967 are in: FCO 24

• Commonwealth Office, Far East and Pacific Department, 1966-1968
• Commonwealth Relations Office, Far East and Pacific Department, 1960-1968

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Topics

International

Asia

Australia and Pacific

Africa

The Far East and Pacific Department (1960-1968) was successively a part of the Foreign Affairs (1960-1964), the Far East and West Africa (1964-1965) and the Far East and Mediterranean (1965-1966) Divisions of the Commonwealth Relations Office. From August 1966 the Department was part of the newly formed Commonwealth Office.

In September 1963 the federation of Malaysia (the Federation of Malaya, North Borneo, Sarawak, Singapore) was created, and relations with the new Federation continued to be handled by the Far East and Pacific Department. In December of the same year, the Commonwealth Relations Office took over from the Colonial Office responsibility for relations with the State of Brunei, which were handled by the same department.