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SINGAPORE REGAINS ITS OLD GAIETY

■» CLUB REOPENS MILLIONS TO BE SPENT ON. REHABILIITATION WORKS. Raffles hotel ballroom is in [Quli swing — nightly except Sundays. It has been Tefurnisbed, has a new bar, and an Australian girl crooner. Singapore's clubs are funetioning a'gain. The transit passenger might be forgiven for thinking that things were back to pr-e war normal. He would be wrong, but in many ways Singapore to-day i"s a surprisingly cheerful place, writes H. A, Standish in fhe Sydney Morning Herald. Coming there from Galcutta, where people skirt around the gartbage piles with handkerchief to nose -"and the civic atmosphere is compounded equally of fear az d filth. Singapore seems delightfully clean and well ikept. Despite rice rationing, the 'Chinese now look well fed1 and theitr children tumbling about the pavements are as fat as pet puppies. Wihile 1 was there the rice ration was increased by about three-quarters of an ounce per person daily, but thc total weekly ration is still less thar. two pounds, and with the minute increase has come a 60 per cent. rise iu price. People .don't mind that 'much however, because black market rice which they pxactically all buy, still costs 10 times as much as official crice, which the Government sells at a loss Tinned foods are now plentiful, anc' in the last few weeks the market has been flooded with so much surplus army stuff that, as one businessman put it, "the iblack market has collapsed." Good rice crops in Burma. Siam and Malaya itself make the food position more cheerful now than i has been since the war ended. Singapore's hotels are still able tc crowd transit passengers three orfoui in a room, but they are beginning tc slap colourwash on the walls and tc improve their food. The seiwice generally is good, though hotel managerf and old residents lament the new independetnt attitude of the Chinese boys. Existing hotels will have to pull ui their socks because juSt 'behind Raffle: is to be built a new multi-million doi lar many storeyed hotel replete witl. telephones and shiny bathrooms anc air conditioning. This new project has been .announced by the 'Loke War. Tho family, who own Singapores onlj modern skyscraper, the Cathy Building, which now boasts a gleaming brass plate with a coloured S.E.A.C ba^ge, presented by Lord Louis Mour.t batten to commemorate the fact tha. bis headquarters were there. Official Offices. The Cathay Building used to includc very pleasant flats, as well as a cinemr and a ballroom-restaurant. Those o.f us who lived there before the Japanese interfered still think about theiv. nostalgically. Now it is all taken ujwith official offices, including those oi the rather elaborate staff of Lord Killearn, Special Commisioner for Southeast Asia. House-hungry residentr look at these offices and mutteiHouses in Singapore are as scarce at they are in New Delhi, or, for that matter, in Sydney. Many owners arc refusing to let but insist on sellinp at prices which, in some cases, are lOf per cent. higher than the already in flated figures which prevailed a yea ago. If you are lucky enough to ren either house or shop you usually havi to pay stiff "key money," The Army and the Air Force between them stil occupy more than 350 buildings, most ly homes, and presumably will con tinue to use some at least until thc big services building programme i complete. Wlhen you get a house you are ur. against the twin problems of servant? and transport. Before the war jus' about all ^Europeans ih Singapore rau cars. Now many would travel by bu.~ if they could, but the routes are fevi and far between and the residentia" areas very scattered. Wise wives whc shipped cars up from Australia whe:t they returned are counted preciom beyond rubies. A few people who left their cars at the docks when they went away early in 1942 have recovered them and I heardi of some cases where servants loyally managec to hide or somehow keep track o! their masters' property during thc occupation. The old baby taxis, now older tha:. ever, still ply for hire, but tricycle rickshaws or "trishaws," have replac ed most of Ihe old hand-pulled ones. which are to 'be officially abolished within a few months. Tax Rumours. It is planned to spend anillions oi dollars on 'big rebailitation works, but the threat of a small income tax (precise rate unspecified but generally expected to be from eight to 12 per cent.) set business men ragirig: furiou^ly while I was in Singapore. The tax was announced subject to the imposition of a similar tax in Malaya. People talked far more about the income tax threat ("The thin end of the wedge, old boy") and about the wedding of the Governor-General, Miy Malcolm MacDonald, in Canada than they did about constitutional plans for the new dominion that's emerging around Malaya. Almost everything that is scarce in Australia can be seen in Singapore's sbops- — ■'Ut a price. -Nylon stoddngs are purchaseable without any trouble at the equivalent of £2 10s to £3 (Australian) a pair. I am told that prices have fallen a bit in the last few months, but Singapore's residents Whom I met were all coiiining their bilying to absolute necessities, in expectation of a further fall as goods flow in. Living costs are regarded by old hands as fantastically high, but tbey seemed to me to be about on a par with those of NeW Delhi, where people are innured to spending about £1290 sterling a year for modest-scale living for a small family in a far from palatial bungalow. You no longer sign chits in the clubs and •eheerfully await the monthly reekoning. Now you pay cash is advance, by purchasling books of ibafr chits,

though admittedly the club provides a cheque hook to make the process hs painless as possible. It's just another' sign that the good! old days have gone —for good,

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/RMPOST19470120.2.3

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5306, 20 January 1947, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
993

SINGAPORE REGAINS ITS OLD GAIETY Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5306, 20 January 1947, Page 2

SINGAPORE REGAINS ITS OLD GAIETY Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5306, 20 January 1947, Page 2

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