MALAYA, A LAND OF BEAUTY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 92, 19 April 1930, Page 16

MALAYA, A LAND OF BEAUTY

NOVELS THAT CREATE ILL-FEELING

The attitude of the Socialist Gov-' ernment towards the Singapore) Baso is provoking the keenost discussion in Singapore, writes the city's correspondent of the- 'Sunday News." One of llie factors to which local attention is being consistently drawn is tho lack of knowledge displayed by the average citizen of Great Britain towards this part of tho Empire. Singapon is not a "sink of iniquity," as it was onco described by a late member of Parliament. Nor is British Malaya the homo of harddrinking, dissolute men and unprincipled women that some modern novelists aud playwrights would havo us believe. British Malaya, which falls, like ancient Gaul, into three parts, is, a ■beautiful country with a romantic history and a great future, both politically and' commercially. The" title '' British Malaya" is a name recently adopted as a short way of describing a relatively small territory that, in- the words of the official guide, comprises "Three distinct systems aud nine separato Administrations." . The whole territory is administered by the Governor of the Straits Settloments, who is ex-officio High ;Commissioner' of the Protected Malay States, both Federated and Unfederated. Singapore, the seat of Government of the colony, has a great strategic importance- from its geographical position. It has been described as "The Gateway! to the East," aud, as the site selected] for the naval base, it has on numerous.! occasions been the subject of political! controversy.

It has also great commercial importance. The total annual tonnage of shipping entering and .leaving tho port averages more than twenty million. Tho area of British Maiaya is 56,G02 square miles, of which the colony, as opart from the Protected States, is just less than 1(500. The gross value of its imports is approximately £120,000,----000, and its exports £160,000,000 annually. There is more than & 75,000,000 of capital invested iv the rubber industry alone, there being more than 2,500,000 acres under rubber Cultivation. The output is approximately 60 per ecnt. of the world's supply. The industry employs a great deal of machinery, but unfortunately not all of it is of British manufacture., ■ The output of tin from Malaya is more than''3o.- per cent, of the world's supply, approximately 40,000 tons per annum. Nearly all the tin ore is smelted in the country. In the last few years there has been a great increase in modern methods of mining, and there are now more than sixty large dredgers working. \ In 1914 machinery of a total horse power of some 6500 was employed. Now the horse power is approximately 120,000. Here lies a market worth attention by British manufacturers. ~-.■'■. There are many other industries in existence, most, of which afford an opening for British capital. Some are at present small''and relatively uninportant, but.all growing and capable of great expansion* like copra, rice, arftca nuts, tapioca, and preserved pineapples.