By NNN-Bernama
Kuala Lumpur : Malaysia Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar Thursday attended the handing over of the ship’s bell from the HMS Prince of Wales at Admiralty House in London to mark the launch of “RelationShips,” a special project between Malaysia and Britain to strengthen historical ties between the two countries.
Syed Hamid said he was proud to be part of the occasion and hoped Malaysians and Britons would learn to appreciate the history and looked forward to more Malaysia-Britain collaborations in future.
“Apart from commemorating sacrifices by the navies of both countries, this project will also further strengthen Malaysia’s formal and diplomatic relations with Britain,” he said in a statement issued here.
Also present at the event was project chairman and former Malaysian Defence Forces Chief Admiral (Ret.) Mohamed Anwar Mohamed Nor, Britain’s Veterans Minister Derek Twigg and British High Commissioner to Malaysia Boyd McCleary.
RelationShips was inspired by the sinking of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the cruiser HMS Repulse in a naval engagement at the start of hostilities in Asia of World War II in which Japanerse aircraft illustrated the effectiveness of aerial warfare against naval forces not protected by air cover and which highlighted the significance of including an aircraft carrier in any major fleet action.
The engagement took place near Kuantan on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia and the the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse cruiser were sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy with land-based torpedo bombers.
The wrecks of the two ships were found after the war.
In 2002, the ship’s bell from the Prince of Wales was removed from the wreck by British technical divers in response to fears that it would be stolen by unauthorised divers and since then has been on display at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool.
The bell was handed over to Mohamed Anwar in Thursday’s ceremony and would be flown to Malaysia. It is scheduled to arrive on Nov 22 and will be shown to the public in roadshows at various venues around the country, including during the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace exhibition (LIMA) 2007, from Dec 4-8, in the northern resort island of Langkawi.