The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-07

ments among the Malays. A genera
and the country jungle. 1t had neither
roads nor railroads. there were no rest
ing places for travellers and the wilder
ness was Inhabited chiefly by wild beasts
and wild men Today the English have
taken hold of 1t and are making it bios
som like the irrigated lands of our new
west. They have brought order out OF
chaos, and are building roads and rail-
roads, establishing schools and laying out
towns In the Federated Malay States,
which contain something like million in
habitants. more than 800 miles of rail-
ways have been built and more than
5000 miles of cart roads and bride paths
There are hotels at the capitals and out
side them new government rest houses,
where travellers can stay overnight.
Thlrty-five years ago the people of the
country had never seen postage stamp
Today the postoffices are handling more
than 100000 pieces of mail every year,
and the postoffice savings banks have
deposits running into the hundreds OF
thousands of dollars.
Laws, Courts and Schools
The population is rapidly increasing. 1t
has more than doubled since the English
took hold, and it is being transformed
from savagery to civilization.
The laws have been reorganized and
courts have been established. There is
good police force, and the British
government has a battalion of Sikhs,
known as Malay State Guards, who
keep excellent order Schools have
been started, hospitals erected and
public works of various kinds are we'll
under way.
In the state of Perak more than one
hundred and fifty miles of canals and
irrigation bitches have been dug, and
at the close of last year in the neigh
borhood of 900 acres .of rubber
trees had been planted. There are now
something like twenty million such
trees on the various farms, and tens
of thousands will be set out this year.
| The foests ae being exploited, mines
| opened and the country prospected for
| tin silver and gold. From one state
alone as much as eighty million dol
| lars worth of tin has been taken, and
| in all something like twelve thousand
ounces of gold are mined every year.
| In addition they are finding lead, iron
| and copper, as we'll as mercury, bis
muth, silver and zinc The country Is
said to be very rich, but no one knows
yet what it contains although a rude
| sort of mining has been going on for
| ages. The Malays are noted for their
work in precious metals" and the
sultans of the past had goldsmiths and
carvers of silver, ivory and wood. Some
of them demanded gold and silver
trees and flowers as a part of their an
nual tribute, and the Malay spears and
krises inlaid with gold have always
| been noted.
The MaIays of the Peninsula
But before I go further let me tell
you something about the Malays as
they live here in their own home on
cousins of our Filippinos, and belong
to the race which has overrun the
Dutch East Indies. There are something
| like 25,000,000 of them in Java, large
| number in Borneo, and millions in the
| Philippine Islands. The natives here
are better looking than the Moros,
| but they have the same brown skin
the same sturdy form and staggering
ways. They are clean limbed, well
made and by no means bad looking
Down here at the straits they dress
in a bag-like skirt known as the
sarong, above which is a jacket which
| falls to their hips 4 The seronR
reaches from the waist to the calf II
is a gay-fibured calico bag. often OF
plaid. which is open at both top and
bottom, and is of the same width
throughout When the Malay puts or
his clothes he steps into his bag
raises its top to his waist and by q
twist of the wrist fastens 1t there In
knot. Under the bag he may wear
| calico drawers, or IL poor he may be
naked. The rich wear pantaloons OF
| bright colors or white duck, but the
| sarong is always over the rest of their
clothing. 1t seems to be the badge OF
the race, as are also the handkerchief
| turban and sandals or slippers.
| Here at the Straits of Malacca the
Malays have been contaminated by for.
| eigners. The Europeans have taught
them to drink and through the Chinese
| they have become opium smokers. They
are not so good consequently as the
| people of the wilds They are naturally
lazy and have become the loafers OF
this part of the world. Some of then
act as 'coachmen for the rich Chinese
| or Europeans. Others do light work
about the towns. and few live ir
villages scattered over the islands
laboring only enough to keep soul anc
| body together Now and then one
meets rich Malay from the mainland
| the son of an official or perhaps OF a
sultan, but as a rule the Malays of the
traits are shiftless and poor and they
grow worse off every year.
The Federated States
| III one would see the race at its best
| he should go to the peninsula and traye
through the British states. There arc
other provinces belonging to Siam and
Johore where the progress IL by no means
so great. but in the Federated States he
| Will md towns which have sprung up fr
| the jungle and public buildings equal Il
| those of Japan and India.
| But first let me tell you what these
| states are. If you will take your map oil
Asia and look at the Malay peninsula
| you will see that it begins almost on the
| equator and runs thousand miles or SC
northward, the upper part belonging to
| Slam. About 1000 or 5000 miles from the
straits these British possessions begin AT
| the top is Perak, not as big as New Ter
| sey, and farther down the coast Selaneor
and Negri Sembilan. which combined are
of about the same size as Perak. while
east of them lies the big province OF
Pahang. which is almost as large as
Massachusetts and New Jersey combined
The four states altogether have more
than $4,000 square miles. or about 20OC
| more than West Virginia.
The sultan
Each state is ruled by native sultan
with British official as resident adviser
The sultan is merely puppet and the
Britisher pulls the string. Under the sui
tan are numerous native officials the
most of whom have English agents to
help them, the whole government being
l II -. Il