That “O.K. Baby” Talk in Malaya

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1048, 12 August 1930, Page 14

That “O.K. Baby” Talk in Malaya

EFFECT OF THE FILMS CHARLESTON IS POPULAR “A pound of tea, please! ’ ‘•O.K., baby!” rpuE dusky assistant in a little store in the wilds of Malay Charlestons over to the shelf and smilingly produces the required article. This is what the talkies have done even at Kedah, in the Federated Malay States, near the border of Siam. Mrs. C. C. Best, formerly of Auckland, returned by the Maunganui this morning on a visit to her family. She has spent some years in Malay with her husband, who is in the Government service there. The talkies have had a most amusing affect on the Malays, Mrs. Best says. A pronounced American accent now issues from huts and shops where the dusky owners rather pride themselves on their “advance” in the use of languages. Just before leaving Kedah, Mrs. Best attended the school sports. The dusky children were not taking a great deal of interest in the competitions. Some of them had gathered near a gramophone and to the tune of “Painting the Clouds with Sunshine were doing the Charleston with more vigour than those fleet-footed experts who formerly toured New Zealand on the vaudeville stage. “0.K., BABY”

“0.K., Baby,” was the most familiar greeting in the shops where formerly there had been some slight show of deference to European patrons. So much for the advance of civilisation!

Mrs. Best says that the holders of English, French and Swedish titles are plentiful in the Malay States. Most of them, however, are there because times are hard. They have taken up rubber-planting, but as the rubber market has gone to pieces the outlook for them is not at all bright.

Thousands of Chinese are out of work because of the collapse of the tin market, and most of the small Chinese shops are closing down. In an effort to provide work for the coolies the Government is opening up tracts of country. Everything is reduced in price in the shops.