This memoir was written very late in Sir Arthur Tange’s long life. Earlier in his retirement, he had written a short family history, entitled Looking Back, which was perhaps a better example of his skill as a writer. Tange was always fond of writing but recognised that, throughout his life, he was inclined to be prolix and to insert too many qualifying phrases into a single sentence. Some errors found their way into the text, some no doubt occasioned by the difficulty of reading his typescript with its many handwritten annotations and amendments. Several individuals were identified only by surnames, and he was not always consistent in spelling terms such as ‘South East Asia’ and ‘Southeast Asia’.

In editing the text, I have kept editorial interventions to the minimum. In a few cases, I have adjusted the word order, punctuation and/or syntax to make the meaning clear, but have restricted that practice to the occasions when it seemed absolutely necessary. Where appropriate I have added forenames and positions. Footnotes have been added where they seemed necessary, including those cases where Tange had specifically indicated that he wanted sources to be noted. References to other relevant works have been made where that seemed especially appropriate, but not to the above-mentioned biography, as such references would have appeared on almost every paragraph. Readers should assume that this memoir will be of greatest value if read in close coordination with the relevant passages of the biography.

Throughout, I have sought to preserve not only the meaning but also the style and tone of Tange’s text. For example, Tange’s use of capital letters for words such as ‘Service’, ‘Department’ and ‘Minister’ have been left unchanged, as a reminder that these are the words of someone who had followed Public Service conventions for several decades.