The Monmouth inquirer. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1865-1933, 1926-04-29


Society. washington. D. CD
UBBER has been uppermost In
American thoughts and CONVEX
sation in recent months. Brit
ish control of the rubber or
chards of the Malay peninsula has
made it possible greatly to raise the
price which America, greatest of con-
sumers, must pay In Great Britain's
rubber control system. Kelantan, one
of the unfederated Malay states under
British suzerainty, is perhaps the most
important single factor
Think of the Malay peninsula as an
elongated Florida tackled on southeast
Asia. Singapore shall be Key West;
then the southern boundary of Kelan-
tan is approximately in the position
of Orlando and the northern boundary
is $50 miles above, that is, at Jack
sonville, Fla Kelantan is go miles
deep, which is trifle more than half
the width of Florida. Since Kelantan
lies five degrees from the equator, it
would be quite willing to trade noun
tains for bit of Florida's latitude.
Miami had 14-inch fall of rain re-
Gently, which seems to put it in the
running with Kelantan, where over
100 inches fall annually in the plains
district When the figures are all in
Florida's average will be shown only
one-third as great, Kelantan's steep
ing climate swathes its hills in the
densest tropical forests. The jungle
is matted above ground and matted
below. An American surveyor boring
for bridge pier cut through 100 feet
of crushed and rotting leaves and
branches to find the bottom obstruct-
ed by rott1ng trunk of forest mon
arch that may have fallen more than
a century before
Green is tyrant in Kelantan. A
native will cut out garden plot in
the jungle. By dint of industry he
can keep the jungle back for two
years crops of tapioca root Two
years abandonment results In a
growth ten feet high, impenetrable
without an ak. Acres Of Virginia
farms abandoned during the Civil war
support 3O-foot pine trees, but one can
still identity the old corn rows. Ten
years after the Kelantan garden patch
is surrendered only the practieed eye
can distinguish the spot from natural
jungle.
Not All Jungle.
But not all of Kelantan is jungle.
The plain Of the northeast, one of the
largest level regions in the whole pen
insula, affords views where there are
no trees to be seen for miles; only
rice beds glistening like windows of
an enormous dollhouse and grass pas
lures for cattle. Even the dIsordered
jungle is giving way to ordered rows
of rubber trees. Rubber is now the
most valuable export of Kelantan.
Two other tree products, coconuts and
betel nuts, figure heavily In its trade.
Betel nuts are chewing gum substi-
tute of the Orient
Kelantan offers handy example Of
the East Indies before and after Eu-
ropean Intervention. Kelantan has
been made safer for the ordinary ma
tive citizen and his family and a
greater share of the profits of the cit
liens toll come to him.
The native conception of municipal
government can be understood best by
imagining parallel political system
set up in an American corn-belt town
In the first place the mayor would re-
gard the community solely as source
of wealth for himself, although he
would not live there but instead in
Chicago. Neither would he take the
responsibility for governing the town
or collecting the taxes for himself,
since he could farm out that work to
an exacting foreigner. In Kelantan
the foreigner would be Chinese.
Anyone in the community who COM
mitted a crime would be hailed before
a court in another city. Since the
chief ends of justice, Kelantan style,
are to support the judges, half the
damages and costs, together with
what terrorism. bribery and blackmaiI
could exact, would go to these digni-