Radio in Malaya

Radio Record, Volume I, Issue 52, 13 July 1928, Page 2

Radio in Malaya

FIELD FOR WIRELESS a A QUESTION OF TIME | N one department, at least, ef radio cmatters, Malaya has achieved world importance, says Mr, Hubert S. Banner, in "World Radice." In 1925, as the result of representations made my an emissary of the League of Nations, Singapore was made the site of a central epidemiological bureau, which aimed at the co-ordination of the maritime public health legislations of the various Far Eastern administrations. Before the end of 1926 weekly telegraphed epidemiological returns were coming in from nearly 150 Dastern ports within four days after the end of the week to which they bore reference, The Governments of Indo-China and of the Netherlands Indies, by ecourteously undertaking to broadeast the collated reports each week withont charge, brought the costs of the ssheme to a minimum. Private wireless in Malaya, however, has had to struggle nnder severe difficulties. With very limited means at its disposal the Wireless Society of Malaya carried on amateur broadcasting for a period of over two years, putting out bi-weekly concerts. In the middle of 1927 a Johore member, with a. Reinartz circuit detector and two stages of | low frequency, with semi-yertieal aerial | of 24 feet, listened to London. This, was the first recorded occasion, though late in the previous year a Singapore enthusiast had called together a large gathering of people to listen to 210, | only to find out, after all, that it was. 8L0O, the Australian station! | JN Mareh, 1927, it was definizely an- : nounced that in accordance with the recommendations of the Malayan Wireless Committee approved by she: Government, an exclusive broadcasting ; license would be issued to one vom‘pany for a period of tive years, The company would have the right to) broadcast advertising mutter te the. amount of 10 per cent. of the total. daily broadcast time. The company ,was floated under the title of The | Malayan Broadeast, Limited, with headquarters at Kuala Lumpur, Sen langor. ; } It can only be ® qnestion «f time | hefore Malaya takes its place among the most important broadcasting cen- | tres of the Empire, for it is a ceuntry Whose prosperity in relation to area and population is nothing short of phenomenal. Covered with jungle a | bore half-century ago, Malaya to-day | -and in area it approximates only to | ‘England (without Wales)-shows an annual total of imports and exports ¢.. between £200,000,000 and £300,000,-. 000. Indeed, the country’s whole his- | tory is one of extremely rarid pro"gress. | THE Oldest European settlement is 7 Malacca, whose ancient buildings, "still scauding, can tell a stery as romantic as any in the world. Taken by the Portuguese under d’Albuquerque in 1511, it passed into Dufch hands in 1641. It surrendered toe the British in 179, was handed baek to the Dutch in 1818, and came finally into British possession in 1824, The first seat of British Government, however, was established at Penang in 1786, whence it was transferred early in the following century to Singapore, founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. From the time of federaticn onwards progress has gone ahead by leaps and bounds. ‘Where formerly there were no meaus of transport, save rivers and perilous forest paths, to-day there is a network of 4000 miles of excellent metalled roads and a railway system extending over 1200 miles and linking up with the State RailWays of Siam, More than 2,000,060 acres of the jungle have been cleared }and planted with rubber, putting Malaya in a position to snpply appreximately half of the world’s rubber supply. Another department in which great progress has been made is tin mining. It is on record that as early as the fifteenth century Chinese miners were working the Malayan deposits, and it was in order to adjust the quarrels between rival gangs of Chinese miners that Britain first interposed in the affairs of what are ‘now the Federated Malay States. Since then rapid advances have taken place, and to-day, with up-to-date ma--chinery and methods, Malaya supplies ‘about one-third of the world’s tin requirements, . In a country, then, of such unparal‘Jeled prosperity and future promise, it may surely be prophesied that one day broadeasting will truly come into its own. Merely as a sidelight, to indicate that matters are moving in the right direction, it may be mentioned that imports of electrical apparatus into Malaya in 1927 totalled £°35,101, as compared with £493,289 ‘during the preceding year.