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Show I n ItoUiii iilC n ? i ' i i : f - rtubber Planter's Home In Malay States. (Prepared by th National Gouirruphlo Hoclcty, Wtt;hlnul'in. D. C.) TII10 1'Vdei-ntod Malay states, on Asia's southernmost peninsula, penin-sula, have been literally snatched from an all-covering wild vegetation. Where once the choking Jungle crowded men hack, a Jungle so thick that a man swimming In a stream could hardly hind because vines and plants hugged so close to the water's edge broad fields have now been cleared, and Malaya plantations plan-tations are among the richest In the world. Forty-five years ago a few para rubber rub-ber plants smuggled out of I'.ra.il fruited here. Today, three-fourths of the world's rubber comes from this region. And In this magic development develop-ment Americans have played a loading load-ing role. This Malay peninsula, stretching hundreds of miles from the Siamese frontier down toward the equator, forms a vast humid region of dense forests of Jungle, wild elephants, snakes, and naked people, rice fields, rubber plantations, and tin mines. There Is a governmental mixture In this region. Singapore, built on a tiny green Isle of the same name, which lies Just off the end of the peninsula and nearly on the equator. Is the capital cap-ital of the British crown colony commonly com-monly called the Straits Settlements. This colony embraces the Province of Wellesley, the Dindings and Malacca an the mainland, and the Islands of Penang and Singapore. The Federated Malay states, on the peninsula and adjoining the Straits Settlements, comprise the States of Perak. Selangor, Pahang, and Negri Sembilan. Kuala Lumpur Is the capital. cap-ital. Just opposite Singapore, on the mainland. Is the Independent native state of Johore. which has Its own sultan and government, but which Is under British protection. The British governor of Singapore Is also high commissioner for the Federated Malay states and Brunei, and British agent or north Borneo and Sarawak, thus linking up British possessions and spheres of Influence In all Malaya and establishing close contact, through one man, with the colonial ofllce In London. Lon-don. Many Races There. "The Melting Pot of Asia," they call this prolific, potent peninsula, because of the babel of races, colors, and castes which its wealth of rubber and tin has drawn to it But in all this Industrial army of Europeans, CVinese, Japanese. Tamils. Hindus, and assorted assort-ed South Sea Islanders, the Chinese are the most numerous and powerful. The Malay himself is too lazy even a deserted jungle save for a little fishing fish-ing village. Shi;is in the China trade passed It by us they passed many another an-other jungle shore; the only ports of call In that region of the world were those on the Dutch islands of Sumatra and Java. But these ports took a big j toll In fees, and Sir Stamford Baltics, an olliclal of the Fast India company, began to dream of a free British port that would facilitate trade. In 1S10 he obtained the seemingly worthless Island of Singapore for his company for 8 small fee. Developments quickly quick-ly proved him a prophet, for within two years the little tnid'V; center he established had a population of 10,000. It was only in 1.322 that the British government Consented to take an Interest In-terest In the place. In the little more than a hundred years since it was founded, the Jungle of Singapore has given place to a huge city of close to 400,000 population, carrying car-rying on trade valued at a billion dollars dol-lars annually one of the metropolises of the British empire. Its quays and anchorages serve thousands of craft of all sorts and sizes, from the picturesque, pic-turesque, graceful Malay sampans and the sKidgy Chinese junks to the familiar fa-miliar freighters of the West, and what Kipling asserts are the "ladylike" "lady-like" liners. They build up Singapore's Singa-pore's shipping to the tremendous total to-tal of 17,000.000 tons yearly. Though Singapore is free from duties, du-ties, and to this fact owes its very existence, still the people who make up the city take their toll from the stream of world trade that flows about them. They live. In fact, by and. for. find In an atmosphere of commerce. Tens of thousands make their livings by caring for shipping, conditioning nnd supplying vessels, and taking part In loading and unloading goods. The port is primarily a trans-shipping point for both Imports and exports. It gives what the economists would call "place value" to hundreds of commodities which trickle to Singapore's reservoirs reser-voirs of goods from scores of districts In the Fust and are there obtainable In the large quantities that world trade demands. In the city's "godowns" as the Fast calls its warehouses are handled a very large part of the world's finest rubber before it begins the long journey that will take most of it eventually to American highways. So. too, much of the world's tin is smelted in and shipped from Singapore. Singa-pore. If might be dubbed "the world's pepper pot." for more pepper is assembled assem-bled there than Is ever held In any other port. Real Cosmopolitan City. If ever a city could claim to he cosmopolitan. cos-mopolitan. Singapore can. At one of the to bo a good fisherman. He grows a little rice, a few coconuts, and nets the fish he needs; but nature is so kind that it is said one hour's effort a day will support him and his family. It Is the Chinaman who is the tin miner, the farmer, shopkeeper, artisan, contractor, and financier. The Tamil and the Hindu add to the stock of local labor and own small farms and herds, but the many millionaires made iu Malaya have mostly been Chinese. The palatial homes of the rich Chinese bosses In Singapore and Penang, in contrast with the miserable shacks of the natives, afford proof enough of the singular commercial superiority of the yellow race. Here, Indeed, Chinese Immigration has worked a modern miracle in the magic reclamation of this once reeking, reek-ing, fever-cursed, jungle-grown wilderness. wilder-ness. The Chinese it was who first braved the poisonous darts of the lurking lurk-ing savage, the perils of tigers and reptiles, the flames of fever, and the danger of dysentery, to conquer these Jungles and dig the tin that put Malaya Ma-laya on the map of the trading world. Chinese say that tin "grows" and they use the divining rod to locate It. Singapore Is both a great trading center and fortress of the Far East. It Is a shining example of how Great Britain has "muddled" as the British themselves put it Into possession of some of the world's most important strategic gateways. Singapore is an Island Is-land 27 miles long by 14 wide, and Just misses being the southernmost point of the continent of Asia by a half-mile water channel. It Is at the funnel point of the Strait of Malacca, which extends between the Malay peninsula and the Island of Sumatra, ' the great water highroad between In-'dla In-'dla and China. How Raffles Made Singapore. Little more than a hundred years ago the Island, owned by the sultan of Johore on the aearby mainland, was principal wonu crossroaos. unu wuo a population 100 per cent immigrant, it could not escape cosmopolitanism. It has drawn its population from practically prac-tically all parts of Asia, from Oceania, the Malay archipelago, Africa. F.urope and America. The Chinese predominate, predomi-nate, making up about one-half the population. There have been many thousands of Immigrants from India. Europeans, Americans and Australians number less than 10.00'.). and there are probably as many Japanese. The appearance of Singapore shows its mixture of many Influences. The visitor may ride in 'rikishas or elec- j trie cars, automobiles or ancient horse-drawn horse-drawn carriages. In the chief business busi-ness district he sees modern streets and buildings, and In the Asiatic quarters quar-ters he encounters facilities and sights and odors that smack of the Orient. Singapore's houses of worship furnish an excellent index to its varied life. There are Christian cathedrals and churches. Moslem mosques, and the temples of half a dozen or more Indian and Chinese and Japanese faiths. Without making use of reiteration one can hardly describe the physical -aspects of Singapore island adequately. adequate-ly. It is an island of red. red soil and green, green verdure. The soil is poor, but since Singapore is almost at the equator and moist, vegetation might be said to grow furiously. There Is an nnending fight between it and the coolies who strive to prevent Its vivid green waves from engulfing the conspicuous con-spicuous red roads nnd cleared spaces. So, here In the strait. Raffles early declared that the principles of British law should be applied with patriarchal mildness and Indulgent consideration for the prejudices of each tribe. All native Institutions, such as religious ceremonies, marriage and Inheritance, were respected, when not Inconsistent with justice and humanity. In this policy lies the secret of British colonizing colo-nizing success. |