Old Singapore Quiz (14) - Old Blanket or Old Building?

The above photo looks like part of my old homemade blanket. However it is not. (In the olden days, thrifty mothers would save scraps of cloth left over from making clothes for their children. They would then use these mismatched scraps to sew blankets for the family.)

Quiz Question:

Where did these patterns come from?

Clue 1: This is an old building and not an old blanket.

Clue 2: This is not a rock climbing facility.

Clue 3: "These patterns came from Victor's camera" is true but not the correct answer.

Clue 4: Like all of Icemoon's quizes, this is an easy one.

Update on 24 Nov 09

Thank you for all your answers. It seems like this quiz is not so easy after all as nobody has got the right answer so far. Hence I will accede to Chun See's request for more clues.

But first, I am quite sure that most of you have seen this building before. If I show you the entire building, you would certainly have no problem identifying it. This seems to teach us a philosophical lesson, i.e. sometimes in life, when you look at a problem too closely, you might miss the wood for the trees and cannot solve the problem. You may need to take a step back and view the problem from a different perspective.

Okay, here are another 4 clues:

Clue 5: Like Whiteaways used to be, this building is located in town.

Clue 6: But unlike Whiteaways, this building is still in existence today. In fact, it has been conserved.

Clue 7: The 4 photos in the montage are all taken from the outside of the building. In fact, the 4 patterns are all visible from just one photo which I will show you when I reveal the answer in a few days' time.

Clue 8: One photo in the montage is deliberately shown upside down. It should be clear which one.

There, it should be much easier now. Happy guessing.

Update on 26 Nov 09

There are still no correct guesses. Alright, one last clue - a photo taken from the inside of the building. This should give the game away. If not, I will reveal the answers by this weekend.

In Your (60s) Neighbourhood, Where You Gonna Call?

The inspiration for the title of this article came from Ray Parker Junior's very catchy 1984 hit, the Ghostbusters:



However, I must confess that the inspiration for writing this article came from Chun See's article on a similar topic.

In the 1960s, whenever we "city folks" wanted to call someone, we would use the phone of the coffeeshop located below our block.


The coffeeshop owner was nice enough not to charge us for the use of the phone. (But then again, my mother paid in another way via her illegal chap ji ki bets placed through the coffeeshop owner.) The numbers "9" and "0" were locked with a copper padlock so that people could not make unauthorised IDD and trunk calls which required the dialling of a "0".

The telephone looked exactly like the one in the illustration above but was black in colour. On its front (bottom portion) was emblazoned a gold-coloured logo with the letters STB which was superimposed onto an image of a flying swallow, if I remember correctly. The letters stand for Singapore Telephone Board, I think. (Telecommunications, both the capability and the word, may not have been invented then.)

I would not be surprised at all if people of the younger generation today tell me that they do not know how to use the telephone. So how would a telephone number be dialled then? You must follow adhere to the following dozen steps strictly:

1. Make sure no one is using the phone. (Queue for your turn, if necessary.)

2. Ask the coffeeshop owner for permission to use the phone.

3. If permission is given, lift up the handset.

4. Listen for the presence of a dialling tone in the ear piece.

5. Dial the first digit by poking your digit index finger into the hole marked with the correct number behind it.

6. Turn the dial clockwise with your finger until it stops at the metal catch at the 5-o'clock position. (Try as you might, the dial could not be turned anti-clockwise.)

7. Unplug your finger from the hole. (The dial will return to its original position.)

8. Repeat steps 5 to 7 until all the numbers are dialled.

9. Listen for ringing tone in the ear piece and answering party's "Hello".

10. If connected, say what you have to say and keep your conversation short (less than 3 minutes).

11. When call ends, replace handset onto the cradle of the phone.

12. Last but not least, remember to thank the coffeeshop owner for using his phone unless you are not going to do it ever again.

As you can see, the elaborate dialling process itself could take up to half a minute or more. Luckily in those days, local telephone numbers were only 6-digit long.

Although I am not an engineer by training, I can tell you that there was another way with which you could get connected without ever touching the dial. How? You use the cradle instead of the dial. Follow Steps 1 to 4 above but instead, Step 5 onwards is as follows:

5. Tap the cradle in quick succession the same number of times as the first digit of the telephone number.

6. Pause for about a second.

7. Tap the cradle in quick succession the same number of times as the second digit of the telephone number.

8. Repeat Steps 5 to 7 until all the numbers have been entered.

You should get a connection if you have done the process correctly if the coffeeshop owner has not stopped you by now. I know it works because I have tried it before. This is because the telephones in those days work on a "pulse dialling" system. (You can't do that with the later "tone dialling" system which is still in use today, if I am not wrong.) The pulse dialling occurs in Step 7 if you use the dial, and both Steps 5 and 7 if you use the cradle.

It was certainly a good thing that we finally got our own telephone when we moved to our new Haig Road flat in the mid-70s.

Update on 20 Nov 2009:

I have found a National Archives photo of the black telephone described above on Laokokok's blog here:

British Withdrawal From Singapore

Singapore faced many challenges in its early years of independence, one of which was the British withdrawal by the end of 1971. This development was well-documented in various media:

Singapore - From Settlement to Nation Pre-1819 to 1971

A further challenge came about when the British announced that it would be withdrawing its military forces from Singapore by the end of 1971. At that time, British military expenditure amounted to 12.7% of Singapore's Gross National Product (GNP). Read what Dr. Toh Chin Chye, the then Deputy Prime Minister, said about the British withdrawal in 1968:

"Besides 30,000 civilian workers employed in the military bases being faced with the possibility of losing their jobs, there would be hundreds more who would be affected because their business and their livelihood depend on supplying goods and services to the British servicemen living in Singapore." (Adapted from The Straits Times, 1 Jan 1968, a New Year message by Dr. Toh Chin Chye.)

Other than the economic impact, the withdrawal also meant that Singapore now had to build up its own defence to protect the nation from both internal and external threats. Without securing political and social stability, it would not be possible for economic development to take off.


Singapore - Journey into Nationhood

In July 1967, Britain dropped a bombshell on Singapore: it would pull out all its troops by 1968. At least £50 million or close to 20 per cent of Singapore's economy came from the British military presence. Nearly one family in ten depended on the troops for its livelihood. There were some 30,000 civilian workers in the bases. Thousands of women worked as domestic helpers. Shops, restaurants and bars depended on the patronage of soldiers and their families. Singapore was facing a major economic crisis as well as a security one. The presence of British troops meant a minimum of precious funds had to be spent on defence.

Negotiations in London led to agreement that troop withdrawals would be phased out and completed by the mid-1970s. However, Britain went back on the agreement and in January 1968 said that withdrawal was to be completed by 31 December 1971. This was an extension by nine months of the original March deadline, reached after some desperate negotiations. To soften the blow, the British threw in all the bases and their facilities to which they had title, as a gift.

A Bases Economic Conversion Department was set up to look into commercial uses for these assets. The three Royal Air Forces bases alone covered some 2,428 hectares of land. The naval bases had potential as shipyards.

The nine extra months gave Singapore a little more time to make the changes necessary to meet the economic crisis. To prevent a recession, urban renewal was accelerated, industrialisation speeded up and infrastructure projects carried out in order to spend $900 million, the amount the British military would have spent between 1968 and 1971. The Singapore Armed Forces was expanded which also settled the question of security as well as increased jobs. So frantic was the pace of economic development that by the time the British completed their pull-out in 1971, Singapore was moving towards full employment.


Singapore - The Encyclopedia

In January 1968, the British government announced that it would pull out its troops in Singapore (and Malaysia) by spring 1971. This sudden and unexpected news shocked the Singapore government as it had been given to understand that the British would defend Singapore after its independence. Apart from security issues, the move would also affect the economy - at least 20 per cent of Singapore's economy then came from the presence of British military personnel. About 10 per cent of the working population depended on the troops for its livelihood. There were about 25,000 civilian workers in the bases. Thousands of women worked as domestic helpers and many shops depended on the patronage of British soldiers. British services spending in Singapore was as much as $550 million a year at the height of the Confrontation in Malaysia. In short, Singapore was facing a major economic crisis in addition to physical insecurity.

During defence talks with British leaders in London, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew told reporters that he would forgo economic aid in return for security for Singapore and would have to hire mercenaries to defend Singapore if Britain pulled out its forces too quickly. The British agreed that the withdrawal of troops would be phased and completed only by mid 1970s to facilitate major cuts in Britain's armed forces and overseas defence spending. However, the British later changed their mind and informed Singapore that the withdrawal was to be completed by November 1971.

To fill the vacuum that followed the ending of the Anglo-Malayan Defence Agreement (AMDA), the British proposed the Five-Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) made up of the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Singapore, that would be consultative, not a binding defence obligation. On 31 October 1971, AMDA was replaced by FPDA.


Photos from National Archives of Singapore

27 April 1967 - British Defence Secretary Denis Healey at a press conference held at Phoenix Hotel. He announced that British troop withdrawal from the Far East is targetted at 20,000 before April 1968



1972 - Preceding 3 photos show Changi Cinema and shops in Changi Village. Changi, the last area in Singapore to see the British forces pull-out, is in the throes of transition today. With the Royal Air Force (RAF) troops out and the British withdrawal completed they could expect the going to be rough temporarily but it has a prosperous future as neighbouring Bedok will be the site of a new satellite town, the fourth in the republic.


Finally, Dr Loh Kah Seng is writing a book on the British bases and military withdrawal from Singapore. (Please see his open letter below.) If you or anyone you know have any stories to share, please get in touch with him. You can find out more information from his blog.

Dear fellow Singaporeans

I am a Singaporean historian looking to speak to people who remember the British bases and their withdrawal in the early 1970s. The withdrawal was the first major crisis independent Singapore faced. The 56 bases, contributing a fifth of the country’s GDP, were its largest industry, and the pullout threatened the livelihood of one-sixth of the labour force, including an estimated 8,000 amahs.

The pullout also transformed the economy, society and landscape of Singapore in the 1970s. Most of the bases were converted to commercial use, while many base workers underwent a 3-month retraining crash course. Technical and vocational education also expanded, as new laws sought to increase labour productivity and attract foreign capital investment.

These developments resonate with us today: the retraining programmes, the mobilisation of the young, the philosophy that ‘no one owes Singapore a living’. There is also a forgotten social history to unearth: how retrenched base employees coped with the crisis and how workers adjusted to new work routines.

If you remember the British bases and rundown, or have a family member, relative or friend who does, kindly contact me to lend your voice to an important episode of our national story.

Please pass this message along to those who might be interested.

Thank you.

Loh Kah Seng (Dr)
Visiting Research Fellow
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,
Singapore Email: LKSHIS@GMAIL.COM
Mobile: +65 81981172
Blog: Click here


Further Reading:

1. Infopedia: British Withdrawal from Singapore;

2. Wikipedia: History of the Republic of Singapore

3. Mindef Singapore: 1968 - British Withdrawal