The Sea Road to the East, Gibraltar to Wei-hai-wei: Six Lectures Prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial OfficeSargent, A. J. (Arthur John)
History
The Sea Road to the East, Gibraltar to Wei-hai-wei: Six Lectures Prepared for the Visual Instruction Committee of the Colonial Office
Sargent, A. J. (Arthur John)
Travel -- Guidebooks
over nine-tenths of the total exports of the Federated States
and provide a large revenue for the Government to spend on
improvements.
The miner and artisan is nearly always a Chinese, so that at
the present time the Chinese in the Federated States actually
outnumber the natives. If we add the Indian coolies to the
Chinese, we find that out of a total population of about a
million, three-fifths are of foreign origin. This is how tin
and rubber are translated into terms of population. Outside
the Federated States we do not find the same proportions in
the population, though the geographical conditions are of much
the same kind. There is the same rice cultivation in the coast
plains; the same plantations of coconuts and rubber, though on a
smaller scale.
Trengganu has a considerable textile industry, while Kelantan
exports _sarongs_ to the neighbouring states. Tin also is
everywhere, and some gold; while Europeans are already mining,
prospecting and planting. The population of Kelantan is almost
entirely Malay, and the native element is stronger than the
Chinese all down the east coast. The whole region is rather more
primitive than the west side; the palace of the Sultan of 43
Kelantan, with its curious wooden palisade and guard of spearmen,
looks distinctly old-fashioned.
In short, eastern Malaya has been rather out of the world in the
past. The coast is difficult of access; the river mouths are
blocked with sandbars, and there is a continuous line of surf
in the months when the Northeast Monsoon is blowing. It lies,
too, out of the main track of shipping; so that we have a great
contrast to the sheltered waters of the Straits of Malacca, and
it is only natural that the country behind should be slower to
develop.
The most backward part is naturally the pathless jungle on
the mountains of the interior, which is still given up to 44
wild game and to the Sakai, naked savages living in rough
forest-shelters and armed with the blowpipe and poisoned dart.
These represent the lowest grade among the people of the
Peninsula. But development has begun in the east and the result
will be a change in the face of the country such as we have seen
in the west, brought about by the Chinese and Indians of the
mine and plantation, aided by European and Chinese capital, and
working under sound administration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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