The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1906-06-28
TRAVELLING HOMEWARO.
Prof. Charles E. ROye'S Description
of His Trip to Singapore.

German mail ship "Sachen" which
will be our home until we arrive
at Naples. At noon we sailed for
Singapore. There were about
two hundred passengers on board,
including Americans, Europeans.
Chinese and Japanese; in Our Sec
ton there are about forty men,
women and children, among them,
four Americans; English, Ger
mans, two NorN egians, one Itali-
an, one Dutchman, and Russians.
Probably every nationality of
Europe is represented aboard the
ship.
They all understand more or
less English and this is the usual
language of communication.
To show how widely English is
distributed in the east I will tell
some things 1 heard recently:
German officers shouting COM
mands in English to their Malay
sailors; Chinese and Japanese talk
ing together in English; English
officers commanding Indian troops
in English; Chinese directing In
dian laborers in English; Italian,
Germans, Norwegians, Russians
and Dutch talking with each other
in English. English is the lam
guage Of commerce in the East.
Only today 1 heard our young
Italian passenger lamenting that
he could not secure good job"
because he could not write English
we'll. He has an English-Italian
grammer which he studies when
not too seasick.
The ships crew is German, ex
cept one negro, two Indians and
some Chinese coal passers and fire
men. The "Sachsen" is one of
the smaller ships-only 5000 tons
burden and with 5000 horse power
engines. She makes good time
however; ST. miles yesterday.
The weather has been fair and
we spend the days on deck reading,
talking, md walking for exercise.
We always have more or less
breeze and the heat it not noticed.
Singapore is four days sail from
Hong Kong. 1t is comparatively
an old city, having been founded
by the energetic English colonial
governor, Sir Stanford Rafaes, in
1910. He said Of it, Our object
is not territory, but trade" By
establishing free port he hoped
to destroy the Dutch trading mo-
nopoly in the East Indies.
However, the English control
today more than a million people
on the Malay peninsula. Singa-
pore OF 1900 inhabitants, is the
residence Of the Governor; like so
many of the English fortified sta
tions, it is situated on an island.
The home government spends a
half million dollars yearly on its
defences. We climbed one of the
hills overlooking the city, and af
ter passing lines of deep trenches
on its sides we arrived at the top,
where we were halted by big
Indian sentinel who demanded our
pass. AS we had none we did not
enter Fort Corvallis.
Singapore did not impress us so
favoraDlY as Hong Kong. Its bus
mess houses are older; its streets
not 50 clean; it lies only two de-
grees north of the equator so the
climate is warm its people are
Chinese, Indians, Malays and
few English.
The Chinese are the traders and
have hundreds of little stores and
work shops; they also draw the
convenient little jinrickshas.
The Indians are mostly Tamils
from southern India. They work
on the streets, the wharves, etc.
The native Malay is seldom seen
in the city; then only as a coach
man or policeman, but in the coun-
try he lives in peace much as he
lived before the busy city existed,
in little palm leaf covered house
under the graceful cocoanut trees.
We saw many families on our ride