New Britain herald., 1923-06-15
JUNGLE ID WORLD
 CITY IN 100 YEARS
Such Is Rapid Growth of SiGsa' pore Great World Gateway

Washington, n, q, June l5.-'sing-
 sRaFf, which hY q Naie ia the RFitr
 ish house of commons IS 10 haze sah,r
 0oA,n0A expended on Il ta make lt an
 imnregnahle naval base, already is
 heavily f0rlilied, and in strategic posi- ton is the Gibraltar and Alden 0f tho
 Far East" saYs bulletin fFam the
 Washington, n, C., Headquarters Of the National Geographic society,
 ''Ths great trading center and for tress Of today Is q shining example nt hpw Great Britain has 'muddlfd'- ss the British themselves put it-lnta possession of some Of the worlds most important strategic gateways, Singapore is an island sI miles long by II wide and just misses being the sonthernm0st point Of lhe continent Of Asia hy a half mile water cham nal lt is al the funnel point of the Strait Of Malaeea which extends be tween the Malay peninsula and tho Island Of sumatra, the great water hiehroad between India and China,
 Deserted Jungle Century Ago
 "Iittle more than a hundred years ago the island. owned hy The sultan Of Johore on the nearby mainland. was a deserted jungle save for n lit- le fishing village. ships in the China trade passed it by ns they passed many another jungle shore: the only ports Of call in that region of the world were those on the Dutch Is- lands Of sumatra and Java, Rut these ports took big toll in fees. and Sir Stamford Rallies. an official of the East India company. began 10 dream of free British port that would facilitate trade. In 1919 he obtained the seemingly worthless is- land Of Singapore for his company for a small fee. Developments quick ly proved him a prophet, for within two years the little trading center he established had population Of 10000. It was only in 1922 that the British . government consented to take an in- terest in the place.
 Tn the little more than q hun dred years since 1t was founded the jungle of Singapore was given place to a huge city of close to 60,000 population. carrying on trade valued at a billion dollars annually--one of the metropolises of the British em- pire. Its quays and anchorages serve thousands of craft of all sorts and sizes, from the picturesque, graceful Malay sampans and the stodgy Chinese junks to the familiar freigh- ters of the west, and what Kipling asserts are the 'lady-like' liners. They build up Singapore shipping to the tremendous total of 10000 900 tons yearly.
 Where Our Trees and Tin Cans
 Come From
 Though Singapore Is free from duties. and to this fact owes it's very existence. still the people who make up the city take their toll from the stream of world trade that flows about them. They live, in fact by and for and in an atmosphere of com- merce. Tens of thousands make their livings by caring for shipping, condi- Lioning and supplying vessels, and taking part in loading and unloading goods. The port is primarily a iJ .rans-shipping point for both imports and exports. It gives what the econ- omists would call place value to hun ireds of commodities which trickle to Singapore's reservoirs of goods from 'cores of districts in the east and are here obtainable in the large quanti- ies that world trade demands. In