CHAPTER VII THE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES OF THE FEDERATION OF MALAYA, SINGAPORE, NORTH BORNEO AND SARAWAK 1. These territories have a combined population of nearly 7,000,000, of whom over 5,000,000 live in the Federation and 1,000,000 in Singapore. Although they share a common currency —the Malayan dollar, equal to 2s. 4d.—and co-operate closely on questions of social and economic policy, they are four separate territories. The two colonies on the island of Borneo, North Borneo and Sarawak, became the United Kingdom Government's direct responsibility for the first time in 1946 ; large parts of them are completely undeveloped. Apart from Singapore, the territories are predominantly agricultural in so far as they are developed at all, much of the area being thick jungle. Of the total area of 81 million acres, only about 6,000,000 acres are regularly cultivated, the chief crops being rubber (3,700,000 acres), rice (over 1,000,000 acres) and coconut (700,000 acres). There are, in addition, large areas of forest in North Borneo and other land in Sarawak which is only intermittently cultivated by primitive methods. The other major resources are the tin of Malaya and the oil of British Borneo. 2. All four territories suffered considerable damage during the war, which included three and a half years of Japanese occupation. The physical destruction was greatest in North Borneo, where the two chief towns were practically razed to the ground. Out of a total of 900 government buildings 600 were completely destroyed and all but twenty of the remainder were damaged. In other territories also buildings, railways and rolling stock, plant and machinery, roads and bridges, and port and harbour installations were destroyed or damaged. Some of this destruction was to prevent valuable assets falling into Japanese hands. The Japanese neglected the maintenance of anything which did not contribute directly to their war effort. Plantations were abandoned to weeds, machinery was left to rust, buildings were allowed to fall into disrepair. Education was neglected. Public health and other social services were not maintained (in 1944 the death rate in Singapore was double the pre-war rate). 3. Immediately after the liberation, local Governments and private enterprise began the immense task of rehabilitation, and by now this has been largely completed except in North Borneo. A striking illustration of this recovery is the rubber industry, where the great efforts made by estates and smallholders resulted in a record output for the Federation of 698,000 tons in 1948. The cost of restoring the public services and rehabilitating public assets has been borne by the local Governments, largely out of their revenues, but partly from their reserves or from loans. Since the liberation, gross investment of all kinds, both public and private, has exceeded £l5O million. The cost of some of this investment will be recovered from the United Kingdom Government who have offered about £4O million, in grants and interestfree loans, towards war damage compensation. Further to assist these territories the United Kingdom Government have allocated over £8,000,000 under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act, made direct grants of £8,000,000 to the Federation towards the cost of internal security measures, and grants-in-aid of nearly £2,000,000 to North Borneo; they have also arranged for the Federation to raise a loan of £8,000,000 on the London market. Basis and Objectives of the Programmes 4. The four territories differ widely in their state of development and the extent to which the tasks of rehabilitation and restoration have been completed. In consequence the starting points and the objectives of their

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