At the time of General Templer's arrival at Kuala Lumpur on 7 February 1952, the constitution in force was the Federation of Malaya Agreement 1948, which had replaced the Malayan Union. It came into being on 1 February 1948. It was called an “Agreement” but to all intents and purposes it was in fact a formal federal Constitution. The Federation of Malaya (in Malay Persekutuan Tanah Melayu) introduced in 1948, was the name given to the nine Malay States (Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Johor, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, and Trengganu, and the two Settlements of Penang and Malacca). In this book, for simplicity, the Federation of Malaya is often referred to as “Malaya”. Singapore was a separate colony. The Federation of Malaya became independent on 31 August 1957. In 1963 it was reconstituted as Malaysia with the inclusion of Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak, although Singapore withdrew from Malaysia on 9 August 1965 and became a separate state.

The Preamble of the Federation of Malaya Agreement is important as it repeated the intention of the British Government to “move towards eventual self-government”:

The promise towards self-government within the British Commonwealth was, in fact, repeated by Clement Atlee, the British Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on 13 April 1949 and 28 March 1950.

At the time of Templer's arrival in Kuala Lumpur, how did the British colonial Government function and what were its instruments of government?

Firstly, there was a Federal Executive Council, consisting of Templer as the High Commissioner as President [in Templer's time, the Deputy High Commissioner, Donald MacGillivray, was deputed by Templer to be de facto in charge of the Executive Council] aided by three ex-officio members (Chief Secretary, Attorney General, and Financial Secretary), with not less than twelve nor more than twenty-four members nominated by the High Commissioner. The function of the Federal Executive Council was to debate public policy matters and aid and advise the High Commissioner.