The quarter is not particularly attractive. But after experience of the filthy Chinese quarters of Singapore, Hongkong and Shanghai, it is satisfying to European self-respect to observe how Dutch officialdom has asserted the claims of hygiene and cleanliness upon the Asiatic residents. The objectionable hanging Chinese signboards are noticeably absent in Batavia, as in all other towns throughout Java, and something has been done to make less clamant the odoriferous articles of Chinese commerce. The Dutch have proved that the Chinese are amenable to European notions if only firmness is shown by those in authority. Then there is the residential town, Weltevreden with its broad tree-lined avenues and palatial pavilion hotels and private villa establishments. In style, the European houses are quite unlike those erected by the Spaniards in the Philippine Islands, or the British in the Malay Peninsula. They are not raised to any great height from the ground. Three or four wide low steps lead on to a capacious white marble verandah, the lofty roof of which is supported by shapely pillars with Grecian cornices. Upon the polished surface of the ample hall are strewn rugs of beautiful design or the fancy straw matting of the East. Bed-rooms open on either side from this hall, and at the back, opening out upon a spacious court-yard or garden filled with gaily coloured flowers or stately palms, is another wide verandah where meals are served. The bath-rooms, kitchen, stables, store-rooms and servants' quarters lie beyond the garden. There is everywhere a generous appreciation of space, and doubtless the good health enjoyed by the Dutch ladies and their families so markedly in contrast to the British colonists on the other side of the Equator is largely due to the more comfortable homes in which they are settled. In Java, the bath-room is a special feature, and only those who have travelled much in tropical countries can appraise it at its true value. It is all in keeping with the thorough cleanliness of the Dutch people, a feature which impressed itself upon us wherever we travelled throughout the island. Detached from every house of any pretensions, there is a smaller pavilion. It usually stands in the grounds in front and nearer the roadway, and in former times was spoken of as "the guest house." Nowadays, either because the Hotels are more comfortable than in olden times or because the railway system has led to a style of life that calls for less hospitality for travellers, the guest house is more often let to bachelors, who find it easier and cheaper to maintain a small establishment of this sort than the bachelor messes or chummeries of Singapore and Penang.