The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-23

prudent investigations. Without the Chinese nothing would have been done ! in the Malay States; no progress would have been made, and the enormous na- tural resources of the country would still be lying dorman."
 The British have had relations with the Malays for more than 300 years. Sir Francis Drake touched their. coast in 157S, during his celebrated voyage around the world, and Lord Cavendish followed him in 1888, but the Portuguese and Spaniards had been there long be- ! fore. The Portuguese settled Macao in 1511 and the Spaniards founded Manila in 1517. The first business done by the British on the peninsula was in the ship Edward Bonaventure, Capt Edward Lancaster, who landed his crew at Pen- ang in 1592 to get rid of the scurvy and stayed there all summer. The following 1 fall he took on cargo of pepper and other natural products which he bought from the natives, and returned to Eng land around the Cape of Good Hope. Capt Houtman, a Dutch sailor, landed here in 1895 and exchanged a cargo of merchandise for native products. The Malays states are now the principal source of our tin supply and have been producing it since 1884 when the mines were first discovered and worked by Dutchmen.
 The report of Lancaster's voyage pro- fits derived from Houtman's venture at i tracted attention to the country, and the famous East India Company, which afterward became the greatest mono poly ever known in the. world, was oringinally organized in the year 1900 with a charter for IS years to trade with the malays. Tn 1903 the Dutch and the Portuguese demanded their share of the market and from that time on two centuries there was constant warfare between the three nations over it. In 1763, for reprisals, the British captured the city of Manila, and the first territory in the East acquired by England was the Island of Balambang- an, off North Borneo which was ceded to the King by Sultan of Sulu, an an cestor of one of our brothers in brown" in gratitude for release from a Spanish prison in Manila when that place was captured.
 The Government of India teok actual possession of Penang in 1TS4 when the east India company adopted it as a. convict station, and town gradually grew up around it. The Prince of Wales Island, as it was then called, was leased for eight years for the sum of 10000 a year, to be paid to the Ra- jah of Kedah, and this annuity has been continued to his successors by the British Government to the present hour. Finding that the soil in this locality was uncommonly fertile it's cultivation was undertaken by Hindu labor, and H has been continued ever since. The na- tives have done nothing.
 Singapore, which is now the head quarters of the Government, was founa- ed in 1919 by Sir Stamford Rallies by order of Lord Hastings so that the British could command the strait of Malacca and thus have check uon the aggressive policy of the Dutch. I will tell you something more about Singa pore in another letter for it is in several respects a remarkable town.
 While the English were strengthening themselves at Penang and Singapore the Dutch fortified the ancient town of X Malacca, which was the metropolis of all the East when the Europeans made their first appearance in Asiatic waters Neither Bombay. Calcutta, Rangoon Singapore. Batavia Bangkok, Manila Hongkong, Shanghai or Yokohama had ever been heard of, nor had most oi them an existence when Malacca, the capital of the Malays, was a town of great commercial importance. It was the greatest entrepot and distributing point for the commerce of the East un- til the close of the eighteenth century Then Dutch power and commerce de clined and the importance of Malacca 6ecayed with them until 1925. They fought over it with the Portuguese, the Spaniards and the English again and again; it was frequently besieged and several times captured by hostile fleets The British Captured it in 1795. and held it until 1918, when it was restored to the Dutch for few years in accordance with the treaty of Vienna, but came permanently under British control in 1924, when the various East Indies Isl ands were distributed among the nations. The British colony at Malacca was founded two years later, and from it an attempt was made to control the affairs of the peninsula.
 The native rulers were left to them selves until 1875, when Mir. Birch, the British resident was brutally murdered and his residence sacked by lawless Malays. Troops were sent down from
 India and Hong Kong. The natives were punished severely; those con cerned in the murder of MT. Birch were captured and executed, and it being disclosed that the Sultan was privy, fl not responsible for the crime he and several of his chiefs were banished The Government was reorganized upor the present plan, and since then there has been uninterrupted peace and in creasing prosperity.
 Each of the four native States is al lowed the greatest degree of inde- pendence and home rule under it's owr chiet, with a staff of British advisors There are Il Englishmen altogether connected with the Government, witf 40 others in the Army. The remainder of the officials are natives who are ap. pointed after competitive examinations similar to those held in India, and pro. noted by merit. also examination, The higher offices are all filled by men whc the lowest grade since 1875, and the ma. tives have come to understand tha- honesty and industry are the besi