Malaysian Diplomat Mystery Deepens

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31091, 21 June 1966, Page 15

Malaysian Diplomat Mystery Deepens

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) CANBERRA, June 20. The mystery of the nine-day absence of the Malaysian High Commissioner, Tun Lim Yew Hock, has deepened—in spite of his return home.

One puzzling aspect is why the search for the envoy was allowed to continue hours after the time of Tun Lim’s stated reappearance.

The Malaysian chief of protocol, Inche Abdul Rahman Bin Jallal, today blamed the desire of Tun Lim’s wife to get back from Sydney to Canberra for part of the 12-hour delay in informing police that the High Commissioner was safe.

He was commenting in an an interview with Reuter on some of the baffling aspects of the High Commissioner’s return.

Inche Rahman had been asked to explain why it had taken more than 12 hours to notify the police of Tun Lim’s return in. view of the fact that his daughter had reported his disappearance to the police little more than an hour after his chauffeur had re-

turned on Friday, June 10, without the High Commissioner. Tun Lim spoke to his wife who was in Sydney by telephone from Canberra at 9.15 a.m., local time yesterday, but it was not until 8 p.m. that police were asked to come to Malaysia House at 9 p.m. and were not in fact told until 9.20 p.m. that the High Commissioner was back. Inche Rahman told Reuter that Toh Puan Lim’s desire to get back to Canberra quickly had accounted for the party leaving Sydney before telling police. When the party reached Canberra at 5.15 p.m. Toh Puan went upstairs to talk with Tun Lim, and Abdul Rahman had not seen him until after that.

Inche Abdul Rahman did not comment on a suggestion that Australian taxpayers had been put to the unnecessary expense of an extra day’s police search by the delay in announcing the High Commissioner’s return. NO COMMENT Nor would he comment on a suggestion that there was a curious similarity between his forecast on Friday, June 17, and his statement of events last night. On Friday, Inche Rahman posed the possibility that the High Commissioner might have slipped on a rock “and been cared for by a kindly soul” unaware of his identity. Last night he said that “a Good Samaritan” had taken him over and he had stayed with “this kindly soul”. Inche Rahman said he did not know where Tun Lim had stayed.

Told that many Australian people thought the story “thin” he took Reuter’s correspondent by the hand and said: “I swear on my heart that there was a Good Samaritan. I met him.” “GOOD SAMARITAN” Asked whether the “Good Samaritan” was a member of the Australian Security Intelligence Service he replied: “I would not know.” Asked whether his own journey to Sydney with Tun Lim’s wife and daughter could have been a diversionary tactic to enable Tun Lim to slip back into Canberra unnoticed he replied: “That is not true. We went

to Sydney to give Toh Puan Lim a break away from Canberra.” Inche Rahman said Tun Lim appeared to be a little better today. A doctor had called to examine him again. When he returned to Malaysia would depend on when he was well enough. Inche Rahman today called on his counterpart at the Australian External Affairs Department—the chief of protocol, Mr F. G. Hall—to express his thanks for Australia’s help in finding Tun Lim.

Elephants Bombed.—United States Marine pilots claimed today to have wiped out a Viet Cong supply train of 11 elephants 35 miles south-west of Da Nang.—Da Nang, June 20.