Evening star., 1900-09-29
CHINESE IN MALAYSIA.
They Dust the Natives From Most
Profitable EmplOyments.


Though John Chinaman is conservative
even as the crab, and would make his
country sealed book" he is pretty
good hand at spreading himself. He is no
fool, so he follows the line of least resis-
tance. Long ago he began to invade west
ernmost America, and long ago he washed
my collars to perfection in New York. lie
has tried the same little game in Australia,
but with less success. He has never man.
aged it in India, but down here in the Ma
lay archipelago he is everywhere, and
everywhere he is supreme.
One of the best cooks / ever endured was
in Malaga, and he was Chinaman-clever,
careful, thieving John. One of the oest
housemaids 1 have ever tolerated was that
same Chinaman-quiet, busy, lying John.
The Malay is a poor thing, with stomach
of rice and no backbone. John, his m
hidden and unwelcome visitor. has simply
walked over him. In Malaga / saw on a
rough scale the apotheosis of the yellow
race. Every shop of any class was owned
by Chinaman; every store, every fac
tory, every mill, every little steamer, every
little industry you can think of.
Whatever lay next to the Malay's hand
has been elbowed away by the Chinaman.
AS with things little, so with things great.
The rich mines and the great organizations
of labor-down to the performance in de-
tail of the labor itsef-are exploited and
dominated by the Chinaman. So what 90
see when l go to the metropolis of Singa-
pore or to those lesser stars in the galaxy
of Malay cities-Penang and Malacca? Why,
John Chinaman spreading himself squarely
on his profits, and in luxurious clubs and
WhiteWaShed palaces spending q part of
them royalty. And more-in the cool of the
evening, behind high stepping horses and
coachman and footman, gorgeously liveried
knee breeches, buckles, silver buttons and
all the rest of it-and seated in the scarlet
lined landau, l again behold John China
man, imperturbable, yellow, wrinkled, gor-
geous with the slken costume of his coun-
try on his body, and absurdly grotesque
with the gray felt bowler of Europe his
head
In these parts he has exceeded in num-
ber the original natives and Malays he
found in possession. In some districts-as
in the mining districts-he outnumbers
them as ten does one. And remember, un-
like the Malay, he is hard al work all the
time. He keeps shop he will cut you out a
suit of linen or light tweed excellently well;
he washes superbly, Is a good blacksmith
and better carpenter: he can make your
garden blossom the rose: he can cook to
charm, and he will upholster your rattan
furniture in West End style at an East End
price.
Day after day have / watched him at
work. Now there arc three races of work.
ers in Malaya-the Chinese. the Maiays
and the Tamils temigrants from southern
1nda). l have often seen all three at work
together. Take road making. The T4miIS
are physically far inferior to the Chinese
and unable to compete with them in the
heavy work, though just as good at blast
ing rocks and breaking stones. The Malays
are only good for light work; they simply
hate work, and do not, will not and prob
ably cannot persist for any length of time.
Jungle clearing and the lightest earthwork
exhaust their usefulness. But there is
none of this that the Chinaman is not doing
and doing wel-at least as long as a profit
looms before him. But woe betide the
European employer if their headman has
bungled the contract and left them no
profit, for they as invariably work by con-
tract as the Malay and the Tamil work by
wage. They will give him no rest: they
will beg for this and that money or cloth,
and then, one fine day, they will leave him
in the lurch and clear out to take up an
other job. John is demon for a dollar.
In the great mining districts of our rich
Malaysian colony the Chinaman is still
more supreme. He is the only laborer
worth engaging, and often he is the only
employer who makes a good thing of 1t.
Our system of exploiting mineral wealth by
limited company may be all very well, but
it is at least always expensive-company
money going certainly no further than, II.
indeed as far as, government money. And,
after all, the test by boring, even when
most promising, has often turned out most
fruitless.
Now watch the Chinaman. When he be-
gins mining he first employs Malay Pa
wang, or medicine man. You may call 1t
witchcraft If you please but that Pawang
has as good a nose for tin as a hound for
a fox. And by actual shade work he gener-
ally proves it. The tin found. John rents
the land by tribute, acts as the capitalist and
bags the profits, but with this noticeable diff
ference-all the laborers have small shares n
the industry. This makes the system pop
ular, and little or no trouble occurs in these
Chinese mines, when. not mile away, the
European may be in terrible straits-saddled
probably with a large and Improbable pur-
chase and crowd of begging but not work.
ing workmen. The Malay peninsula is the
richest tin-producing country in the world;
yet it is certainly true that English specu-
lators have grown lean, while the Chinese
have grown fat upon it.
l have said that the Cinnamon now exceed
the Malays in number, and must add that
Chinese immigration is continuous. They
come at the rate of about one hundred and
fifty thousand year, and, although the
proportion of men to women is as twenty
to one, and in some districts as one hundred
to one, yet somehow or other not incon-
siderable number of Chinese British-born
subjects, are annually added to the whole.
Little wonder that the very weights used in
trade are now Chinese!
And the Chinaman is a great trouble to
the authorities. The Malay despises and
hates him, and he returns the compliment,
and overreaches both Malay and Tamil.
John is almost a criminal by profession,
and in some districts l have known nearly
habitual offenders. Yet even then their
superiority is acknowledged in an odd way,
for when have wanted a tailor or a wash
erman in three cases out of five have been
recommended Chinese convict.
Yet John Chinaman is beaten, and badly
beaten, at one point. Owing to the different
dialects they speak-for they come from
Canton, Swatow, from Annoy and from the
large Island Of Hainan-they simply cannot
understand one another, a fact to initiate
against Chinese expansion. Here they over
come 1t by learning Malay (no Malay would
deign to learn Chinese, even If he had the
necessary energy). l have often seen three
or four Cinnamon carrying on a most ami
mated conversation in Malay who could not
make themselves Ineligible to one another
in their respective Chinese. In these cir
cumstances the secret societes-very hot
beds of conspiracy, piracy and murder
are less difficult to stamp out, but there still
exist dangerous elements. and times like
these, when the whole Chinese race is
stirring to revolt. only too apt to rouse
them to sudden and villainous activity,
So 1t will be well to keep a watchful eve
on John Chinaman in the Straits Settle
ments and Malay states, which, with their
starved and straitened public service, lie pe-
culiarly open to the secret plots and sudden