Where Malaya Stands

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 953, 22 April 1930, Page 8

Where Malaya Stands

IMPORTANCE TO EMPIRE

AN Auckland engineer, Mr. F. C. Cuff, recently returned from service in an important hydro-electricity scheme at Kuala Kangsar, Malaya. Mr. Cuff’s reference to the application of British capital in the Straits Settlements and in the protected States of the Malay Peninsula draws attention to the considerable development in a portion of the British Empire which ordinarily attracts little notice.

If one excepts rubber plantations, the thought conjured up by Malaya usually revolves round the development of Singapore as a naval base. Australia and New Zealand, as the Dominions most affected by an advance at Singapore, have that thought most frequently, too. Yet Malaya is a remarkable country, scenically and in richness of soil and minerals.

Recently, the attitude of the Labour Government aroused a degree of resentment in Singapore, principally because of the meagre knowledge of the part Singapore and Malaya are playing, and intend to play, in the affairs of the Empire. Malaya is a country where earnest men of England, with a leavening of AngloIndians, Australians and New Zealanders, are playing a tremendous part, distinguished by a development rarely imagined outside the bounds of the peninsula. Singapore was once called a “sink of iniquity” by a member of the House of Commons. The opinion of the men of Malaya was that the speaker had probably been reading Eastern novels, and the theory was not improbable. Malaya is suffering from a type of novel, written by authors intent on conveying a bizarre atmosphere, just as the islands of the South Seas are misrepresented to most people of the United Kingdom by an abundant variety of novels and magazine articles. HUGE RUBBER OUTPUT

British Malaya has an area of 56,602 square miles. According to recent figures, its imports are valued at £120,000,000 annually, and its exports at £160,000,000. Rubber cultivations extend over 2,500,000 acres, and there is nearly £80,000,000 invested in this industry alone. The rubber output is about 60 per cent, of the world’s supply, and the output of tin is 30 per cent. Singapore, on an island immediately at the end of the peninsula, is a city possessing a great harbour and magnificent public buildings. It is truly situated wonderfully well for trade. Its commercial future is one which must claim the attention of all the countries of the British Empire. Malaya has been maligned for its climate, but there is tremendous variation, understandably enough when one considers the wide extent of the peninsula. “British Malaya” is a somewhat loose description of the country. It

includes three types of Imperial possessions. The crown colony of the Straits Settlements comprises Penang, Wellesley Province, the Dindings, Malacca and Singapore; the Federated Malay States, under British administration and protection, are Negri Sembilan, Perak (where the Kuala Kangsar scheme has been, completed), Selangor and Pahang; the States which are under British protection, only, are Johore, Perlis, Trengganu, Kedah and Kelantan. The East India Company’s possesions became a Crown colony in 1867 and the Federated States, each with a native ruler, came under the British from 1888 to 1896. Johore has long been under British protection, and the other four States were passed in 1909 by treaty from Siam to Britain. Up to the end of last century, Malaya was notorious for piracy and brigandage among the Malays. Since Britain consolidated its interests, Chinese and Indian labourers have been directed on modern, progressive schemes, and the country has passed rapidly to commercial prominence. At Kuala Kangsar, a public school is conducted on English lines. Throughout the Malay Archipelago to the boundary of the Pacific Ocean, the same story of civilisation’s march is told, even if it is not heeded by the outer world. Immense commerce passes along the myriad sea lanes Twined among the fertile island groups. HOLLAND’S INFLUENCE One has only to turn to Holland’s centuries-old development of Java and Sumatra, both huge islands with modern ports and vast natural sources of production, to see formidable rivals to Malaya. Dutch influence, indeed, is spread more widely than Britain’s. Britain and Australia are making strides in Papua and the British holdings in Borneo. In both these immense islands Holland has great possessions, and the United States, in the north-east, is concerning itself with the development of the Philippine Islands, sadly neglected by the Spanish. All this Is indicative of the potentialities of the East Indies, and especially Malaya, which is yet to receive the full benefit of the developments achieved. Most certainly, Malaya should be better understood by other parts of the British Empire. In many respects, its future is linked with the futures of New Zealand and Australia.