MALAYA

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 62, Issue 4430, 26 May 1941, Page 6

MALAYA

STRATEGIC GEM OF THE EAST. ROMANTIC STORY. Recent events have focussed attention on Malaya, the colourful, romantic peninsula which, forming one shore of the Straits of Malacca, abuts the principal highway between the Indian Ocean and the China Seas. The geography of this war has a strange and compelling attraction, perhaps because the development of the air arm of the World’s defensive and offensive systems has brought to our very doors people who seemed once remote and a little legendary, at least. So it is with Malaya. To many people the word suggests tropic heat, typhoons, and exotic flowers. Actually, Malaya is a very straight and modern civilisation with a rapidlyquickening pulse. In the present conflict it has-remarkable strategic value, and for the moment its brightest jewel is Singapore. Australians and New Zealanders, however, will find in $ more than that, now that strong links between the Peninsula and these southern countries have been, and are being forged by the Australian Imperial Force. The greater part of the Peninsula is occupied by nine Malay States, among which lie three small British colonies known as the Straits Settlements.

Toward the end of the eighteenth century Great Britain was increasing her trade- with China, and consequently was interested in keeping the straits open and providing facilities for her shipping to water and refit. In 1867 the East India Company obtained by friendly negotiation from the Sultan of Kedah the small island of Penang in the-straits, and this was the first of the Straits Settlements.

The Sultan wished to place all his State under British protection, but his request was refused, and it was more than a century later that Kedah became a protectorate among the last group of Malay States to enter the Empire. Malacca, the second of the Straits Settlements, was captured during the Napoleonic War in 1807, and the third was Singapore, founded in a time of peace in 1819. FOUNDING OF SINGAPORE. Sir Stamford Raffles, a servant of the East India Company, and Governor of Java, found what he considered the ideal spot for the foundation of a British port at a central position in Malayan waters in the small island of Singapore, at the south of the peninsula. This central port would be open to ships of all nations, and a focal point of all eastern trade routes —in other words, the cross-roads of the East. Raffles, with the consent of the East India Company, secured the cession of the island from its owner, the Sultan of the neighbouring State of Johore, and how his foresight was justified is revealed amply by Singapore’s history of swift and purposeful development. In Raffles the “ dual mandate ” the British obligation to promote the well-being of dependent races, while developing the resources of their countries for the benefit of mankind at large—found high expression. There is, of course, no pretence that the British do not share in the profits that arise; but they claim only a share, not a monopoly. The Malay Peninsula wias divided into a number of nominally independent principalities, but few had any power for good government. The kingdom of .Siam, to the north, had some claims to the overlordship of some, but this only added to the general confusion and fighting. Feudalism was the root of the trouble. Nobles and titular officers of the States assumed rights which placed them beyond reach of the law, and as a consequence the unprivileged population suffered. Debt slavery was recognised, crime flourished, the standard of living was low, trade' was at a standstill, and the more enterprising took to evil-doing as an occupation.

Until 1867 the Straits Settlements were under the government of India, which, occupied with its own problems, was little inclined to enterprise in Malaya. In that year the Colonial Office took over the Straits Settlements, and before long a new policy appeared. » TRANSFORMATION. There was no drastic sweeping away of the old authorities, but instead, those States that were. willing re ceived a British resident and agreed to follow his advice on all questions except tlibse touching the Malay religion and customs. The residents were instructed, on the other hand, that their duties were advisory, and nothing more. In only one State--Perak—did the change promote any active opposition; a few malcontent chiefs murdered the Resident after he had been at work for a year, but the murderers were punished by what

was really a police expedition. That was the only military action ever taken in the process of transforming Malaya; and the transforming has been thorough. It provides a contrast between a scanty population, living short and evil lives in fear and poverty—‘the conditions before British responsibility was assumed, and the contented, prosperous, and increasing mass of people who to-day are as secure in their liberty as any in the world. In the years immediately before 1914, when the first world was was brewing, Malaya, formerly so poor, was already able to express her membership of the Empire by the purchase of a first-class battleship for the navy. It was the forerunner of many magnificent war contributions during the last and the present wars, all freely offered. Malaya’s present prosperity developed quickly. In 1874 it Was little but a promise; the only export of any bulk was tin, and only a small proportion of the deposits were being worked. The mining was left to the enterprise of the Chinese workers, who had gone to the country before the British. European companies took part in the mining in the new period, and the result was that roads and railways opened new country, agriculture grew, foreign trade was built up, and an era of prosperity firmly established. So it remained until the end of the nineteenth century, when rubber came on the scene. To-day, rubber planting has given Malaya its greatest industry, and the States move onward in the assurance of solid prosperity.