Address Delivered by the Chancellor, the Rt. Hon. Mr. Malcolm MacDonald. P.C., M.A., LL.D. D.Litt. at the University of Malaya Convocation on June 11, 1960.

In the name of all assembled here, I congratulate very heartily the several hundred graduands who are receiving their Degrees and Diplomas today. They are a goodly part of the flower of the young generation in this country, and therefore they represent the future of Malaya and Singapore. Incidentally, I represent the past! I am an anachronism, a hang-over, a ghost of yester-years when British Colonialism held sway in these parts.

Between you and me, I have long been in favour of abolishing myself as Chancellor of this University. That was not because I dislike being Chancellor. On the contrary, I have held a lot of offices in the course of a checkered career, and shall probably hold a few more. I have been a Governor General, an Ambassador Extraordinary, a couple of Secretaries of State, a brace of High Commissioners, a bevy of Honorary Doctors, and various other highfalutin' things; and I have rather enjoyed them all; but the post that I have enjoyed most is Chancellor of the University of Malaya. That was because I care a great deal about Malaya, and being Chancellor brought me in touch with you undergraduates and graduates -- an experience which always delighted me and gave me great confidence in the future of your country, because of your engaging, intelligent and friendly qualities.

So I am the Past and you are the Future -- and it is fitting that the Past should bow in salutation to the Future. I suppose you are mostly in your earliest twenties. How I envy you! How I wish I were at the beginning of my twenties again! When I was twenty-three I left my homeland, Britain, for the first time and began to adventure overseas. I went to America, and to some of the South Sea Islands, and to the Antipodes, and to Japan in cherryblossom time, and to the Forbidden City in Peking, and to many other lands, until I came eventually to Singapore and South East Asia, and then flipped off to India. 

But, of course, that is all very modest compared with what you will do. Before long you will be packing your bags for a journey to the Moon. Then you will make the grand tour of Mars and Jupiter and Venus. Be careful how you approach Mars, and particularly careful how you approach Venus! Afterwards you will hop from star to star in the Milky Way, and Saunter round the Universe as easily as I have travelled round the tiny planet called Earth.

Your generation stands on the threshold of extraordinary, unprecedented, incredible adventures. Creation will reveal to you many of its secrets unknown to your predecessors. The scientists amongst you will concoct all sorts of novel inventions which enable you to make astonishing discoveries. No doubt some of them will be rather horrifying, whilst others will have unimagined beauty and grandeur.

Yet I doubt whether any of them will have finer qualities than one simple object with which you and I are already familiar. It was invented countless ages ago, and is really rather old-fashioned. Yet no brand-new, up-to-date instrument that Mankind’s ingenuity can devise will ever be more potent than that ancient organ. It is the human heart. I am not speaking of the heart as you medical graduates think of it -- a lurid lump of flesh which pumps blood and performs certain other vital physical functions. I am talking of the human heart as poets sing of it -- the repository of human feelings, the fount of emotion, the seat of love which is lodged in everybody’s breast.

However rich any of us may become, we shall never possess anything more valuable than that heart. However fabulous future inventions may be, none will exceed it in potency. It is not a man-made, but a God-made thing. Of course, it has its weakness -- but its strength can be peerless and magical. One of its remarkable qualities is the diversity, and even the contrariness, of its capacities. It can be either glowingly warm or icily cold; it can love and it can hate; it can create or it can destroy. So it has great power for either Good or Evil. If only the collective heart of the human race will exercise its virtuous gifts, it can solve all human problems. And if the human race can settle its difficulties, I doubt whether any other creatures that you discover on your jaunts through the Universe are capable of causing serious trouble.

So if your generation is to make a success of its sojourn on Earth -- and its journeys through Space -- the soundness of your hearts will be even more significant than the brilliance of your brains, the expansion of your knowledge, and the inflation of your technological achievements. I do not suggest that Intellect is unimportant. Of course, it is immensely important. Your warm hearts must be nicely balanced by your cool heads. But remember that in life it is hearts that are trumps.

One could say many things about various aspects of the human heart. I will make only one observation. No-one should keep his heart to himself. It should not turn inwards in self love, but outwards in affection for other beings and causes. Like money, the heart is a thing that should not be hoarded selfishly if it is to fulfil its hallowed purposes. It must not be locked-up as a miser locks-up his treasure; otherwise it stagnates and is a useless possession. The heart is something to be given away, generously and gladly. Then it not only blooms itself, but stimulates other blossoms of goodwill all around.

Naturally, you susceptible graduands will give your hearts to many people! No doubt some of you have already presented that desirable gift to chosen persons; and I wish you joy. Yes, give your hearts without stint to your friends, your sweethearts, your husbands, your wives and families. But also bestow them further. One of the grand things about the heart is that it can be given not only to individuals, but to cherished causes and multitudes at the same time. Its affection can be spread simultaneously in many directions. 

Let me mention two things that I hope you will give your hearts to. The first is your country -- Malaya. It is worthy of the most patriotic love. There are many reasons for that. For example, wherever you may voyage through the starry heavens I doubt whether you will ever find a place more beautiful than Penang, or more enterprising than present-day Kuala Lumpur, or more friendly than Singapore. You will nowhere on the surface of strange planets taste food more pleasing than the satay, birds'-nest soup and other delicacies which we gobble in wayside stalls and restaurants in Malaya. Nor will you find that the Man in the Moon, or the inhabitants of Mars, or the residents of any other worlds have smiles more sincere than those which light the faces of Malayans.

That brings me to the second thing that I hope you will give your hearts to. It is something much vaster and more comprehensive than the peninsular and island which are your native homeland. It is the whole of Mankind -- all Humanity. That is a tall order; yet it is essential if you are to live safely and successful in the adventurous way that you anticipate in your lifetime. If the present rivalries between nations and races continue, we are more likely to blow ourselves to smithereens on our original small planet than to propel ourselves on voyages of discovery through the Infinite Universe.

It is high time that peoples of every colour and creed, every race and culture and society recognize that they are equals, that they are brothers and sisters, members of the same human family who should strive in unity together to achieve an ever higher material, artistic and spiritual civilization. And that is another reason why you should love your country. Here in Malaya and Singapore you are setting an example of citizens of different races living in harmony together. The Malays, the Malayan Chinese, the Malayan Indians and others are fraternal partners in a multi-racial nation. They live in peace together, with mutual tolerance and regard, co-operating to create a prosperous and happy society. You are providing a practical working model for all other peoples to follow. We hope, profoundly, that before it is too late your example will be emulated in  Cyprus, and South Africa, and other parts of Africa, and between the Great Powers, and else-where all round the globe. Then there will really be peace on Earth and Goodwill amongst men.

Graduates of 1960, all your friends congratulate you on this great Convocation Day, and wish you success in your careers. You have proved to the satisfaction of the examiners that you have able and wise heads. I hope you will prove throughout your lives that you also have good and kind hearts.

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