AN EXPLANATION

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 12

AN EXPLANATION

(ToNhe Editor.) Sir, —A news item concerning Mr. C. | Alma Baker, C.8.E., published in your issue cf the Ist inst., in fairness to that I gentleman, calls.for a slight correction. I have known Mr. Alma Baker for many years and I feel sure that he would be the last person to relish the exaggerated account of his rubber interests as mentioned by your correspondent. To say that "he oivns the largest rubber plantations in the East . . . his estates arc producing enormous quantities of rubber and tin," is, to put it mildly, misleading. When compared with the .hundreds of English companies operating in Malaya and the N.E.R, many owning acreages running into tens of thousands, Mr. Baker's holdings are modest. Probably the biggest private owner of rubber estates in Malaya is Sir John Ram.*len, the ■ noted international' polo player, whose plantations must tot.il something like 25,000 acres, and in normal times employing many Europeans and thousands of Indian coolies. I feel compelled to • make this amendment to your correspondent's statement in order to-relieve.Mr. Baker of any undesirable responsibility -.such claims might place upon him.—-I 'am", etc., \CUTHBERT J. ALLISON. Nelson, May 3. ; ,}