THE REAL MALAY

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terjumpa interesting book.....

full reading kat sini..
http://www.archive.org/details/realmalaypenpict00swetiala

THE REAL MALAY

BY

SIR FRANK tATHELSTANE
SWETTENHAM, K.C.M.G.


A NEW METHOD

OF all the momentous events of this fast-clos-
ing century, probably the most remarkable is
the forcing of China from that position of exclusive-
ness which she has maintained inviolate throughout
the ages. For many years the most intelligent and
best-informed Englishmen have realised the pos-
sibilities of the Chinese Empire. They have gauged
the value of that vast territory, with all its known
and unknown resources, and the possibly greater
value of a preponderating influence in a country
inhabited by four hundred millions of the hardest-
working, most easily governed race on earth. An
understanding with China, not many years ago,
might have saved the situation and benefited British
interests to a larger extent than an alliance with
any Western Power. The opportunity went with
the war between China and Japan, a war which



2 THE REAL MALAY

showed the world China's weakness, and gave
Russia an opening, of which she was not slow to
avail herself.

Japan triumphed; but, at Russia's instigation,
France and Germany aided the Northern Power
to prevent Japan acquiring all the territorial advan-
tages she expected as the result of her victory.
Then Germany occupied Kiau Chau, and Russia
possessed herself of Port Arthur and Talien Wan.
Great Britain replied by occupying Wei Hai Wei,
and, since then, China has been treated as a quan-
titt negligeable, while Western and Far- Western
nations have set the policy of the "open door"
against the policy of partition, and gone very near
to blows in advancing their rival claims, or defend-
ing their real or imaginary interests.

More recently, the war between Spain and
America has impressed not only the British public,
but foreign nations, with the value of coaling sta-
tions, docking facilities and bases of supply and
it is clear that England possesses, all over the
world, very special advantages in this respect.
Leaving the Mediterranean out of the question, we
have, in Aden, Colombo, Singapore, and Hongkong,
a chain of fortresses, of harbours of refuge, of docks
and workshops, coaling stores and victualling yards,



A NEW METHOD 3

that give the British navy and mercantile marine
an unrivalled position. It is just becoming known
to the British public that one of the best defended,
most important and most conveniently situated of
these stations is Singapore; and people are now
beginning to learn that Singapore is in the Straits
of Malacca, and that it was secured for England by
the foresight and determination of Sir Stamford
Raffles, one of the greatest, and least known or
appreciated, of the builders of the British Empire.

I call Singapore important and conveniently situ-
ated, because it is about equidistant between Ceylon
and Hongkong ; because it commands the entrance
to the China Sea by the route of the Straits of
Malacca ; and because if, with Singapore as a
centre, you describe a circle, with a radius of a
thousand miles, that circle will cut, or include, Siam,
Borneo, the edge of the Philippine group, the
French possessions in Cochin-China, and the Dutch
possessions in Java, Sumatra, and the Malay Archi-
pelago.

Moreover, though Singapore is a very small
island, it has the Malay Peninsula for hinterland;
it is the central market, or port of trans-shipment,
for all the countries I have named, except the first
two (Ceylon and Hongkong), which are themselves



4 THE REAL MALAY

British possessions ; it is a great distributing centre ;
it possesses immense stores of coal, and docking
facilities of a kind unrivalled in the farther East,
except in our own colony of Hongkong.

To understand the mercantile importance of Sin-
gapore, one should consult Colonel Howard Vin-
cent's statistical map of the world. I will only say
that ten million tons of shipping entered and left it
in 1898, and the value of the trade of the port for
that year was, approximately, three hundred and
fifty millions of dollars, about equal to ^35,000,000
sterling.

Singapore, which is just over one degree north
of the equator, and within twenty miles of the
southernmost point of Asia, was acquired in 1819,
and, up till 1867, it formed, with Penang, Malacca,
and the province of Wellesley, one of the Indian
Presidencies. In that year the Straits Settlements,
as the new colony was so unfortunately named, was
handed over to the Colonial Office, and the period
of its greater prosperity began.

Up till and beyond that date, the British Govern-
ment absolutely declined to interfere in the Malay
States of the Peninsula, though repeatedly pressed
to do so; but a long series of provocations, and
the advent of Major-General Sir Andrew Clarke as