Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-07-28
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS
IAN ENGLISH TOLL GATE
By Frederic j. HaSkin

tory. But the great trading houses,
| the mission of st. Francis Xavier and
the pirates of the elder day are gone.
| Not forever, perhaps, if history may
| be depended upon to repeat ltselt,
About thousand years ago a great
Malay city fourished on the site OF
! modern Singapore. 1t was maritime
city and it's people were sailors. Some
| of them were prlvates and some were
| honest merchants who took the rice
| and silks of China and, transshlpping
| them from the Cantonese Junks, sent
them on to Egypt and thence TO hu-
rope. The city prospered, but 1t
aroused the hatred of other Malay
states. An invasion from Java was all
too successful and the Malay city OF
"Singa-pura," the City of the Lion
was laid waste and utterly destroyed.
The surviving inhabitants fed across
the narrow strait to the mainland
made their way up the west side of
the peninsula and established the new
maritime city of Malacca. Five CEN
| turtles later the Europeans drove them
away and scattered their descendants
about the islands to live by piracy.
Just ninety years ago an agent of the
| Honorable East India company, return
| ing from an incursion into the Dutch
colony of Java, evolved the notion that
the thing for England to doR was to
| hold the straits. Pnang had already
| been taken from native prince under
| circumstances not at all redoundtng to
the credit of the East India company.
| Malacca was handed back to the Dutch
by force of a treaty made in Europe.
Pinang commanded the head of the
straits, but what about the foot?
So Stamford Raffles. an uneducated
clerk, but a man whose character and
force suggests a strong resemblance to
that other British empire builder of
later day-Cecil Rhodes-founded the
city of Singapore. There was nothing
| left of the ancient Malay city but the
name, the foundation of fort and
stone monument covered with inscrip-
lions in an ancient and, to those early
settlers, an unknown language.
British engineer broke up the monu-
ment and used the crushed stone to
build a drain with. In this act of van
dalism persisted the elder Singapore.
Stamford Raffles did not have easy
sailing with his new city. The East
India company changed it's mind sew
eral times and went so far as to pro-
pose the abandonment of the colony.
But Rafflesa fought for his idea, and 1t
was not long until an established trade
| justified thd prediction of the founder.
| The erstwhile clerk became Sir STAN
] ford Raffles, but he spent his last days
in England quarreling with his masters
of the East India company, and no man
knows where his body lies. Yet his
writings live, and by the principles he
| laid down is the British empire gov
erned in more thar. one particular
Singapore was founded in 1919. Ma
poleon was then safely prisoner on
| st. Helena, and continental Europe was
so exhausted that the great sea war
| fare which had been waged almost
without interruption for century had
1 - DnrtIpDl SnAln
Netherlands, not even France could
dispute with England for the mastery
of the seas. The use of steam in navi-
cation was in it's infancy, but the
promise of the modern Industrial age
was being heard
Ninety years have passed, and now
| Singapore is the eighth port In the world
| in the measure of the tonnage of yes
sells which load and unload their bur
dens at it's wharves. In 1857 the Vari-
Gus British possessions along the
straits of Malacca were consolidated
| into a crown cooyn under the name OF
Straits Settlements" From the ports
of this colony three-fourths of the
worlds supply of tin is shipped. The
! tin smelling works Of Singapore rank
| first in the output in the world, and
those of Pinang and Province Welles-
| ley come second.
! The Singapore business men never
tire of telling of the triumph of the
Straits Settlements in a struggle with
| the United States for the mastery of
| the tin market. An American syndi-
cate attempted to corner the supply of
ore and ship the raw material to
, America to be smelted. The British
fought the project as a business ven
ture for a time, and then appealed to
their government The reply was prompt
and satisfactory-a heavy export duty
was imposed on raw tin ores. That as
sured the future of the Settlements as
the chief tin supply market, since three
fourths of the available supply of ore is
located in the neighboring Malay penin-
Fsula. The Straits Settlements profits
by the minerals, the rubber and the
spices grown in Malaga, because the
Malays, being comfortably sure OF
enough to eat, have no further care.
Tomorrow-The Straits Settlements. IL
] Federated Malay States.