Pedra Branca, Singapore ceded by the Government of the State of Johore or in any other way disposed of". The Acting State Secretary of Johor replied on 21 September that "the Johore Government does not claim ownership of Pedra Branca". This correspondence indicated that as of 1953 Johor understood it did not have sovereignty over Pedra Branca, which had therefore vested in the United Kingdom. The Colony of Singapore became a self-governing state in 1959, and left the British Empire to join the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. Two years later, in 1965, Singapore became a fully independent republic. In 1959, in an
Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left the June 1968 legislative election. Held as responsible for the failure, Mitterrand resigned in November 1968 and the FGDS dissolved itself. Mitterrand then undertook to conquer the Socialist Party (PS) which succeeded to the SFIO in 1969. Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left The Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left ("Fédération de la gauche démocrate et socialiste" or FGDS) was a conglomerate of French left-wing non-Communist forces. It was founded to support François Mitterrand's candidature at the 1965 presidential election and to counterbalance the Communist preponderance over the French left. It was composed of: Before the beginning of