JUNGLE FOLK OF MALAYA

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 112, 17 November 1928, Page 21

JUNGLE FOLK OF MALAYA

"In Court and Kampong." By Sir Hugh Clifford, G.C.M.G., London: The Richards Press. Over forty years ago Sir. Hugh Clifford first came into contact with Malaya as a junior in-tho Colonial Office, only to resume his acquaintance, ho might say friendship, with tho country and its peoples nearly forty years iajer as Governor and Comniander-in-. Chief. of the Colony of the Straits Settlements. He always took an interest in native races, as his work in their behalf in Nigeria well shows; and not only so, but ho has the literary faculty in describing the life they lead and writes in a most agreeable style about his experiences. Ho brought out "In Court and Kampong" in 1890, and the sketches of which the book is made-up are accepted to : day as the most enlightening commentaries on the viciousness of native rule and beneficence of British influences ovor tho peoples subject to such rule. Tho pictures he draws aro vivid and sometimes terrible, but they show lifo as it was in Malaya. In somo respects it was certainly more interesting and picturesquo than it is today, whereas the Malay has become sadly dull and limp by comparison, but ho is much better off, is freer, and lon-ger-lived than in his unregeneratc savage condition. There aro many peoples in the Malay. Peninsula, from the Siamese frontier to Singapore, and. they require careful handling, as Sir Hugh Clifford '. shows. The edition in review is tho second, aud it has a new preface in which Sir Hugh refers to Sir Frederick Weld, his first chief in Malaya, an Imperialist, whoso name is also associated with New Zealand. Ho closes with the remarks that his pages are to bo regarded not only as historical but as archaeological studies of a time -forty years ago on the Malay Peninsula, a time, "God be thanked,',' that can never bo again.