Tan Sri Leslie Clifford Bateman was the last non-citizen of Malaysia to be appointed to any establishment connected to the government of Malaysia, as the Controller of Rubber Research in 1962. Bateman was a strong proponent of grading rubber, and pushed for the introduction of the process into the Malaysian rubber industry as the Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) scheme. He believed this was the only way natural rubber could survive against the synthetic rubber products introduced during World War II.