source #1
http://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore-news/walk-down-memory-lane-singapore-60s-and-70s

source #2
blogtoexpress.blogspot.sghttp://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_692_2005-02-01.htmlsource #3

"After separation from Malaysia on 9 August 1965, Singapore became an independent nation-state that had to develop its own armed forces to assert its sovereignty. In July 1967, the British government officially announced its decision to withdraw British forces from Singapore. This was followed by another announcement in January 1968 that the withdrawal schedule would be accelerated and all British forces were to leave Singapore by April 1971. These announcements further increased the need to establish a large citizen army through NS.17'

The SIT was dissolved in 1959, and its successor, the HDB, took over in February 1960.

During his tenure as Chairman of HDB, Mr Lim Kim San was given the daunting task of providing low-cost public housing for about 400,000 people who were staying in squatter and make-shift homes.

Against all odds and to the chagrin of his critics, he built about 25,000 HDB flats in the first three years.

Japanese, all the European population of the colony were massed on the Padang before the troops were marched away to prisoner-of-war camps, some to camps in Malaya and Siam (where they helped to build the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai), others to Changi . The 

Cricket Club

, at the end of the Padang, was the focus of British activity. A sports pavilion was first constructed in 1850 and a larger Victorian clubhouse was built in 1884 with two levels, the upper level being the ladies' viewing gallery. The 

Singapore Recreation Club

(the SRC) building, at the northern end of the Padang, has been built on the site of a former club built in 1883 by the Eurasian community, who were excluded from the Cricket Club. The building is a modern, green-glass affair with polished brown columns: a nouveau antidote to the venerable Cricket Club at the other end of the Padang. In 1963 the club lifted its membership restrictions and fewer than a fifth are now Eurasian.

Flanking the Padang are the houses of justice and government: the domed

Supreme Court

 (formerly the Hotel de l'Europe) and the City Hall. The neo-classical 

City Hall

 was built with Indian convict labour for a trifling S$2m and was finished in 1929. The Japanese surrendered here to Lord Louis Mountbatten and on the same spot, Lee Kuan Yew declared Singapore's independence. Today it contains law courts - the overflow from the Supreme Court next door.
Source: http://www.footprinttravelguides.com/asia/singapore/colonial-core/#The Padang