Powerful voice for NZ and human rights
Malcolm James Campbell Templeton QSO, diplomat and historian: b Dunedin, May 12, 1924; m Barbara; 2s, 2d; d Wellington, September 11, 2017, aged 93.
Malcolm Templeton had a long and distinguished career in diplomacy. In the words of Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Brook Barrington: ‘‘Malcolm leaves behind a rich legacy for New Zealand.
He joined the then Department of External Affairs in 1946 and ‘‘played a key role in the development of our international persona, from shaping our security policies to securing our interests in such areas as Antarctica and the oceans.
‘‘He had a consistent goal throughout his career – ensuring that New Zealand’s voice was heard and that our interests were taken into account.
‘‘Malcolm also played an important role in documenting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s [Mfat] development and recording New Zealand’s efforts to secure its place in the world. He was a superb writer and crafter of words.
‘‘His final book on Antarctica, entitled A Wise Adventure 2, which was published shortly before his death, epitomises Malcolm – great wisdom, combined with a strong sense of adventure.’’
Gerald Hensley, a former Head of the Prime Minister’s Department and Secretary of Defence, paid tribute to Malcolm’s ‘‘great kindness and steadiness of judgment’’ and went on to say that Malcolm was ‘‘one of those rare people on whom younger officers could test their thoughts and get a clear, if not always flattering, answer’’.
Former Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Murdoch, too, spoke of Malcolm’s readiness to put time into giving simple and honest feedback to staff.
Born in Dunedin in 1924, Malcolm lived his early life in Southland, where his father, Jim Templeton, taught at primary schools at Otara, Waikaka Valley, Mimihau and Waikaka.
Malcolm raced through his primary schooling to become a pupil, at the age of 11, at Gore High School before his parents moved to Dunedin in 1936. At Kings High School, where he was dux in 1940, he won a coveted University National scholarship to begin studies at the University of Otago, from which he graduated MA with double first class honours in English and Latin.
Though the professors in those subjects, impressed with his academic ability, urged him to pursue a doctorate (which he indeed achieved when he was 79), he believed he needed to find an occupation (and a salary).
It was almost by chance, however, that he found his way into diplomacy as a career after one of his aunts spotted an advertisement in the Otago Daily Times from the Department of External Affairs calling for applications from wellqualified graduates. His credentials must have impressed the department, because he was soon in Wellington.
Quite early in his career he joined the small team of New Zealand officials accompanying Prime Minister Peter Fraser to initial meetings in San Francisco of the United Nations.
In 1951 Sir Carl Berendsen wrote to then Secretary of External Affairs Sir Alister MacIntosh from Washington with this assessment of his new Third Secretary: ‘‘I think I should add that I am sure we have a winner in Templeton. He was extremely competent and responsible and companionable in San Francisco and I think he is going to stand high in the list of very admirable people with whom I have worked.’’
Templeton rapidly went on to make good on his early promise. He had a number of postings, including Canberra, Washington, New York and London. In 1967 he was appointed Assistant Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
He served as Deputy Permanent Head of the Prime Minister’s Department in 1972, after which he was appointed New Zealand’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.
On his return to Wellington in 1978 he was appointed Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs.
One of Templeton’s proudest achievements was getting the South Pacific Nuclear Weapon Free Zone established at the United Nations. He also played a key role as Leader of our Law of the Sea delegation during the 10 years it took to negotiate the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
That the Convention brought immense benefits (notably the creation of a 200-mile exclusive economic zone) not just to New Zealand but to the wider Pacific region was in no small measure due to his intellectual leadership.
Templeton was also a powerful advocate on issues such as human rights, nuclear weapons testing and the Antarctic. A supporter of the Halt All Racist Tours campaign, he played a key role during the apartheid debate both as then-Prime Minister Norm Kirk’s principal adviser and as New Zealand’s Permanent Representative in New York.
On his retirement, and after a term as founding Director of the Institute of Policy Studies, he became in effect Mfat’s historian in residence. In that capacity he produced an invaluable body of work greatly valued by diplomats, historians and foreign policy commentators.
These include: Top Hats Are Not Being Taken (1989); Ties of Blood and Empire: New Zealand’s Involvement in Middle East Defence and the Suez Crisis 1947-57 (1994); Human Rights and Sporting Contacts: New Zealand Attitudes to Race Relations in South Africa (1998); A Wise Adventure: New Zealand & Antarctica 1920-1960 (2001); Standing Upright Here: New Zealand in the Nuclear Age (2006); A Wise Adventure 2: New Zealand & Antarctica after 1960 (2017).
In recognition of his work as a diplomat, Templeton was made a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order. He was also awarded a doctorate in literature from his old University of Otago for his outstanding scholarship.
Staff who worked with Malcolm have commented that among the attributes that made him such an influential diplomat were that he always insisted on careful research into issues, made sure that he understood all the interests involved, was able to compute a policy line with surety because of his deep understanding of New Zealand’s situation and interests, and communicated his views strongly and well.
He was no respecter of rank, his straight-shooting style earning him an enviable reputation around the ministry for ‘‘speaking truth to power’’, as the expression goes nowadays. He was widely respected, not just among his colleagues but by his counterparts in other departments and governments, as well as by ministers.
Malcolm also had a sharp sense of humour. When Prime Minister Rob Muldoon became frustrated at the lack of success of his ‘‘beef for fish’’ stratagem for Japan in the 1980s and publicly announced that he was going to force the Japanese kicking and screaming into the 20th century, Malcolm was heard to say drily: ‘‘Well, we’d better hope that New Zealand is there when they arrive.’’
Former Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade Neil Walter commented: ‘‘Those of us who had the privilege of working with him benefited immensely, not just from our exposure to his formidable intellect, his reasoned analysis, his mastery of the English language and his integrity but from his strong sense of loyalty to his staff. He and his wife Barbara showed considerable kindness to junior staff sharing a posting with them.’’
A little-known and hard-won achievement of Templeton’s in the mid1960s was to secure agreement that the spouses of New Zealand officers at diplomatic posts could work. Having encountered some initial resistance from the ministry, Templeton wrote direct to the then Head of the Department of External Affairs from London, citing the case of Dame Margot Fonteyn, who was then at the height of her fame as a ballerina and married to a Panamanian diplomat. He posed the question of whether the ministry would have tried to bar Dame Margot from working had she been a New Zealand spouse. This had the desired result, freeing subsequent generations of staff and their spouses from an outdated and repressive restriction.
Templeton will be missed for his contribution to the shaping of today’s ministry, his exceptional record of individual achievement as a diplomat, the impressive body of work he left for the ministry and New Zealand, and the advice and help he gave so freely to those generations of young diplomats who had the good fortune to work alongside and learn from him.
Sources: Templeton family, Neil Walter