On 12 June 1952, Mrs B.H. Oon, a prominent member of the Penang MCA Branch, unofficial member of the Federal Legislative Council, and a partner of the well-known Penang law firm, Lim, Lim and Oon, wrote to Colonel H.S. Lee to enclose a copy of a letter she had received from Dr Victor Purcell in the United Kingdom to say he and a colleague would welcome an invitation from the MCA to visit Malaya “in order to correct certain misleading reports and ill-informed criticisms that had appeared in the press in Britain” and to ascertain the facts about the present position of the Malayan Chinese. Mrs Oon said that she read out Dr Purcell's letter at a meeting of the Penang MCA Branch on 17 May and had sent a copy of it to the MCA President, Tan Cheng Lock, and she hoped it would be possible for the MCA to extend an official invitation to him and his colleague, Francis G. Carnell, a lecturer in Colonial Government at Oxford University, to come to Malaya.

Dr Purcell was an old friend of the Malayan Chinese who had specialized in Chinese Affairs during his long service with the Malayan Civil Service (MCS) (1922–46). He spoke Cantonese and Mandarin and had held a number of senior appointments in the Chinese Affairs Department, and was internationally recognized as a scholar and sinologue. On retiring from Malaya, he was employed by the United Nations as Secretary of the Working Group of 12 Nations on Asia and the Far East, and had last visited Malaya in 1947 and 1950.

On receiving Mrs Oon's letter, Tan Cheng Lock discussed the matter with his colleagues and it was agreed to send an invitation to Dr Purcell and Francis Carnell to visit Malaya as honorary MCA advisers, and shortly afterwards they arrived in Malaya on a short visit from 20 August to 20 September 1952. However, much occurred during their short visit, and it was little realized at the time how contentious it would be.