At their meeting in Johore Bahru on 9 February the members of the committee (then known as the Liaison Committee of Malay and Chinese leaders) had requested MacDonald to become the chairman of the committee but he declined, preferring to remain a neutral observer.
Among the early issues discussed at the preliminary CLC meeting in Johore Bahru in February 1949 were the economic position of the Malays (employment of Malays in industry; assumption of Malays to positions of responsibility in business affairs), the political relations between the Malays and non-Malays (such as the introduction of non-Malays into the Administrative Services) and the qualifications for federal citizenship.
Following the meeting of the CLC held in Johore Bahru on 14-16 September 1949 the committee circulated a statement of some of its general agreements with an inherent long-term perspective, the 'Agreed Views'.
1949, Johore Bahru (this first record of the CLC deliberations was referred to as 'minutes').
But it is a beginning, and quite a good beginning.' These leaders decided that one representative each from the Indian, Eurasian, Ceylonese and European communities should be invited for the subsequent talks in Johore Bahru to be held on 9-10 Feb.
MacDonald noted: 'The Johore Bahru Meeting of the Committee were [sic] therefore abortive so far as practical progress is concerned.
Teams were initially trained at the British Jungle Warfare School in
Johore Bahru, Malaysia, and later under British advisers at Fort Gordon, Ga.
