Complex sentence: It remained a modest outpost as a result, and by August 1914 there were only 1,273 Europeans living in the colony, while there was also a small but significant number of Japanese, Chinese and Malays.
Split into simpler sentences: It remained a modest outpost as a result, and by August 1914 there were only 1,273 Europeans living in the colony. There was also a small but significant number of Japanese, Chinese and Malays.