The Coolidge examiner., 1932-05-20

(WNU Service.)
THE uncompleted British naval
base at Singapore again may
swarm with workmen. The
base has been a political football in
British official circles for more than
a decade. Construction began in
1921 but before much progress was
made, the project was interrupted
by political quarrels until 1923. In
that year the base site was the scene
of much activity, but work again
was halted when the Labor party,
which opposed the project, came
into power.
To the military strategist, Singa-
pore is one of England's main links
in its chain of defenses that stretch
from Gibraltar through Malta, Suez,
Alden and Ceylon, but to students of
geography and readers of fiction, If
is the Crossroads of the East" and
city where East meets West"
In all the swift, significant
changes wrought by white men in
the East, no one event stands out
more conspicuously than the rapid
rise of Singapore. From a jungle
isle, where tigers ate men at night.
to a magnificent city, tenth among
the ports of the world, in less than
a century!
Its place on the map, its strategic
position here at the crossroads of
the East, forced it to a growth at
once unique and astonishing. Last
year nearly 10000 ships cut the CO.
balt-blue seas of the Malacca strait,
tying up the trade of Singapore with
Europe, Africa and India, with Aus
tralia, China, Japan and the Ameri
cas-.
And how Singapore came to be a
city is one of the latter-day ro-
mances of the Orient. Away back
in history, before the days of Marco
Polo, the Malays had founded their
powerful states and set up an en-
pire on their peninsula. Then came
the Portuguese and laid waste to
the strongholds of the sultans, leav-
ing colonists whose descendants,
bearing long, aristocratic names
oddly out of place among Malay cog
nomens, are still found throughout
the Indies.
After the Portuguese came the
Dutch, sweeping from Malacca TO
Manila, only to be followed later by
the British, who, with their genius
for colonization, are here to this
day. 1t was this British adventure
about a hundred years ago, that
lured Stamford Raffles, born at sea-
into this restless region of the then
unknown East. And Fate willed
that he should found this great
Singapore.
Singapore was not conquered like
Hindustan, nor acquired as ready
made colony, like Hongkong; it was
simply bought as New York was, and
settled, when Sir Stamford Raj
fles selected ii as an outpost for
British traders on the China route
and purchased it for the East India
company from the sultan of Johore.
1t was a jungle-covered island then.
peopled by a few score savage Ma
lay fisherfolk.
Now it is wonder city, with mar
BILE bank buildings of singular
beauty and great stone law courts
and government edifices and Chris.
tian churches--all in striking con
trast to the ornamental Malay
mosques, the carved temples of the
Hindus, and the fantastic joss
houses of the Chinese.
A Jungle Reclaimed.
Through the thick jungle, where
once led only the elephant paths,
wide, level roads have now been built,
and the hoarse squawk of the
motor horn has drowned the fierce
growls of the lurking tiger.
Forty-fve years ago few Para
rubber plants smuggled out of Bra
zil fruited here. Today, three
fourths of the worlds rubber comes
from this region. And in this magic
development Americans have played
a leading role.