SINGAPORE

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19459, 26 December 1934, Page 3

SINGAPORE

THE “ LION CITY.” PORT FOR EVERYWHERE. A CANDID TOURIST. Situated some six hundred miles north-east of Batavia, a shade over one degree north of the Equator, and at the very tip of the 'Malay Peninsula, Singapore, the “'Lion City” founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819, is a place of extraordinary interest, writes S. 'Elliott Napier in the Sydney Morning 'Herald. For it is the meeting place of East and West —the port for everywhere. I am very glad to have seen it and to have been able to devote a week to exploring its tangled streets and its exotic amenities; but having done so I am not obsessed by a desire to repeat the experience. I expect that, like the fascinations of ■Katisha, the blessings of Singapore are an acquired taste; and that, as Hamlet said of the grave-digging profession, '“Custom doth make of it a property of easiness.” If I had stayed in Singapore for six months instead of six days, it is possible that I would have grown to love it; but as I didn’t, I didn’-t, and there’s an end of it.

Through the hot, smell-haunted streets and by-ways of this great city there pours by day and night a spate of curious humanity which presents ■to the visiting Westerner a spectacle which is as varied as it is strange. In very literal truth, indeed, that spectacle may be described as “moving.” And in and out, and threading through this, human congestion, runs. the equally curious vehicular traffic of ■the city. The übiquitous rickshaw propelled by its persistent “one-man power”; the funny little trolley buses, 'all of them crammed to suffocation with a load of dusky passengers; the lordly motor-car; the slow and creaking bullock wagon, and the humble wheelbarrow-like stall of the itinerant vendor —all these and a score of other strange vehicular varieties pass before the fascinated but bewildered gaze of the newcomer like a neverending. race-shown Mainly the native population is Chinese, or Malay; but in addition one may see, sometimes in single spies, sometimes in battalions, the sinister-looking Tamils walking the streets "With thoughtful air and graceful carriage, bearded Arabs clad equally in (flowing robes and dignified aloofness, Eurasians of all degrees from the rich merchant to the humble hanger-on at the hotels, -Javanese, Afghans, and 'Polynesians; and, in fact, the representatives of all those races whom Kipling, in a scornful generality, termed the “lesser breeds without the law.’’

Johore and the Naval Base.

The Sultanate -of 'Johore occupies the extreme tip of the Malay Peninsula; and across the bridge which connects it with the island of Singapore there runs a constant traffic. Johore is, of course, although not one of the (Federated Malay States,, under British suzerainty. Despite this fact, however, the bridge 'has at one end British native troops and trade officials, and at the other the corresponding representatives of the Sultan, and everyone who passes must brave, the scrutiny of both. We ‘Paid a visit to Johore and found the capital a curious medley of congested native squalor and princely splendour. The grounds around the Sultan’s palace are magnificently laid out, and the palace itself, in the words of a romantic but somewhat unoriginal member of our party is “a dream of Oriental magnificence." We had .considerable trouble, and much amusement, in finding our way about the town and its surroundings. Our chauffeur knew not a word -of English every soul that we met and questioned—and we must have met and questioned at least a score —seemed to be in a similar state of ignorance, and we ourselves were entirely unacquainted with any of the local current tongues. We spoke not even Malay, that lingua franca of the East. And so we got from point to point by a series of experimental efforts, based on the trial and error system, which would have failed us entirely if it had not been that Providence -sent us a Scottish n.c.o in the uniform of the Sultan. Heaven knows what he was doing m that galley, but there he was; he fell upon us like manna from heaven, and, if I may mix my metaphors, proved himself a most unlikely-looking guardian angel of the very best. Then there was the naval base. 0 course, we went there, too; and if 1 we're at liberty I could a tale unfold that would doubtless stir }OU to the depths. But I am not at liberty loi before the authorities would let me visit the place they made me take a strange and dreadful oath that I vum <. never disclose its secrets. Moic over, when we got there, having passed the mournful Sikh sentry at the whether to burst into teais asawafrs Boli-mi, intrrrogJloiJ. . us.ltlon

Put the Lid On. And then, just ns wo wore about to be allowed to go, a cursory remark of one of I tie party revealed Hie dreadful fact that I was a journalist. This seemed to put the lid on the tiling - entirely; for the “silent service” appears to harbour a strange lnt. particularly virulent anlipalhy against all persons who write for Ihe J>l '«'ss, so once more matters were at a bait, and it was not until a lengthy telephone communication with headquarters at Singapore, bad resul ed m a verdict sullleenily favourable to me that we were allowed lo proceed. And oven then I lie nlUeer, whose, mdignaliou by Ibis lime had so increased that I fully expected to see Ins pors >,i rat ion turn purple to match his ■countenance, insisted on our 'being accompanied by a parly whom he called a “guide”; but who was, I am sure, really sent as a spy upon our movements and as a deterrent against the display of those anarchistic Lend-

encies of which we were so evidently suspected. In the circumstances, you will understand that I can say little about the naval base. ißut even if I felt so inclined, and were rash enough to defy the penalties, I doubt if I could give you much enlightenment upon the subject; for anything more nearly approaching a shell-shocked area on the western front, after it had been taken over by the Allies for reconstruction and repair, I have never come across. There were the same heaps of mullock, the same apparently desultory earthworks and emplacements, the same disgruntled trains travelling, like Omar Khayyam’s “phantom caravan," from one nothingness to another; the, same array of mechanical monsters' doing all sorts of mysterious tilings, and even here and there Iho same sentries and groups of dirt-covered men engaged in emulating the iabouis of the mole. I understand that the base is now nearing complctiop. Ah T can say is that, judging from my cursory and uninlclligcnt inspection of four months ago, lliere must have been some considerable "hurry up” in the interim.

Farewell to Singapore. Mainly my memories of Singapore are of an orgy of buying. The ladies of |]io parly found there an unending and exciting series of adventures in the shopping line, particularly in silken goods and suchlike; while their menfolk managed to secure a number of bargains in “gents’ wear, 1 ’ both under and outer, that will ever give them cause lo recall the Chinese shops of Singapore with gratitude. On the whole though, the principal shops— Hi at is lo say. the Ku.ropean shops—of the city are disappointing, both in their appearance and in llteir contents. -’l'li,. art of window-dressing is either Inst or lias never yet been discovered in Singapore. Another curious fcalure nf the city is the decayed and dilapidated appearance of the buildings. They seem to have been smitten willi a decreptilurle all Ihe more remarkable considering their comparative youth fulness. A striking example of this premature sencctitudc •is provided by St.’ Andrew’s Cathedral. This fine edifice, which is one

of -the most beautifully proportioned in Singapore, and,,, has a most noble interior, looks, despite the fact that it is little more than half a century old, as if it ante-dated Westminster Abbey. 'Unfortunately, its appearance has little of the dignity that is so remarkable a feature of the Abbey. Yes, on the whole, I shall always remember Singapore with interest; but that interest was centred rather upon its queer and complex population than upon any other characteristic. Singapore harbour, too, I shall always remember, both for Its intrinsic beauty and for the amazing variety of craft that one encounters there. Every kind of native boat, from the canoe to the sampan, can be seen on its waters, and the flags of every nation flutter from the forest of masts beside its quays. As we steamed slowly away from the wharf and through this wonderfully mixed assemblage of shipping, Singapore harbour lay in the glow of a swiftlywestering sun; and the beauty of its hemming hills and dotted islands was the last and happiest impression that we carried away of a city that bulks so largely in the affairs of the Empire.