298 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



Canal route to India, is a volcanic peninsula, 75 

 square miles in extent, while the island of Perim 

 has an area of 5 square miles. The Political 

 Resident at the head of the Government is com- 

 mander of the garrison. The imports in 1900 were 

 38,099,800 rupees by sea and 2,750,444 rupees by 

 land, besides 3,414,300 rupees of precious metals; 

 exports, 30,400,258 rupees by sea and 1,140,755 

 rupees by land, besides 3,043,502 rupees of pre- 

 cious metals. The port was visited during 1900 by 

 1,224 merchant steamers, of 2,467,005 tons, and 

 1,687 native vessels, of 52.906 tons. The exports 

 are coffee, gums, hides and skins, and tobacco, the 

 produce of Arabia and the coast of Africa. At- 

 tached to Aden are the protected island of Socotra 

 and the Kuria Muria Islands. Socotra has an 

 area of 1,382 square miles, and produces dates, 

 gums of various kinds, and butter. The Bahrein 

 islands are a British protectorate under a native 

 sheik, from which pearls were exported of the 

 value of 454,9(52 in 1899, the total value of ex- 

 ports being 654,238, and of imports 641,506. 



British Borneo has an area of 31,106 square 

 miles, with about 175,000 inhabitants. The Gov- 

 ernor, Edward Woodford Birch in 1901, adminis- 

 ters the country for the British North Borneo 

 Company, and has jurisdiction over the island of 

 Labuan &nd the recently annexed territory of 

 Tambunan. The native sultanates of Brunei and 

 Sarawak have also been taken under British pro- 

 tection. Tobacco of the Sumatra variety has been 

 extensively planted in North Borneo, and there 

 are numerous coffee plantations, besides a con- 

 siderable and increasing number of pepper, coco- 

 nut, hemp, and gambier plantations. The rev- 

 enue in 1899 was 542,919; expenditure, 410,- 

 290; exports, 3,439,560; imports, 2,456,998. 

 The imports of the sultanate of Sarawak were 3,- 

 281,609, and exports 4,476,006. The state of 

 Sarawak, which has an area of about 50,000 square 

 miles, and a population of 500,000 Melanaus, Ma- 

 lays, Dyaks, Kayans, Kenyahs, Muruts, and Chi- 

 nese and other immigrants, is ruled by the Rajah 

 Sir Charles Johnson Brooke, nephew of Sir James 

 Brooke, who received a cession of the country 

 from the Sultan of Brunei in 1842. Coal exists in 

 large quantities, and gold, silver, antimony, and 

 cinnabar are mined by the Chinese. There are 

 valuable diamond-mines which by agreement w r ith 

 the De Beers Company of Kimberley have remained 

 unproductive. The military force consists of 250 

 Dyaks under a British officer. The revenue, derived 

 from opium, gambling, and arrack farms, exemp- 

 tion taxes from Malays and Dyaks, taxes collected 

 from the Kayans, and import and export duties, 

 amounted in 1900 to 915,966, having more than 

 doubled in ten years, while trade has trebled. 

 The imports amounted to 615,912, and exports 

 to 686,586. The chief exports are pepper, sago, 

 gutta-percha, gold, gambier, dried fish, and rub- 

 ber. Sago is made into flour by Chinese in fac- 

 tories at Kuching and exported thence to Singa- 

 pore. Timber is exported to China. Chinese set- 

 tlers cultivate pepper, gambier, and sago. The 

 native tribes raise rice and collect jungle produce. 

 The Dyaks go all over Borneo and to Sumatra 

 and the Federated Malay States in search of 

 gutta-percha, which is growing scarce. The Me- 

 lanaus have forests of sago-palms, which they 

 preserve and cultivate. The Malays are the 

 sailors and fishermen and the carpenters. Other 

 trades are followed by the Chinese, who are also 

 the merchants and the laborers on the plantations 

 and in the mines. Tamils have lately been at- 

 tracted to this country. Chinese colonies for the 

 cultivation of rice have been planted with Govern- 

 ment aid. Chinese capitalists of the Straits Set- 



tlements are seeking investments in Sarawak, and 

 Chinese merchants contemplate a line of steamers 

 to Hong-Kong. 



Ceylon has a legislative body in which the vari- 

 ous races are represented. The Governor in 1901 

 was Sir Joseph West Ridgeway. The island has an 

 area of 25,333 square miles and a population esti- 

 mated in 1899 at 3,477,094. The tea plantations 

 are cultivated by the labor of Tamils imported 

 from the south of India. The revenue in 1899 was 

 25,913,141 rupees; expenditure, 24,952,460 rupees. 

 The public debt was 3,445,839, raised for the 

 railroads, 297 miles in length, and for the break- 

 water and water-works at Colombo. The area 

 planted to tea in 1898 was 424,856 acres, while 

 19,023 acres were planted to coffee, 864,296 to 

 coconuts, 46,117 to cinnamon, 33,260 to cacao, 

 11,127 to tobacco, and 753,872 to rice and grain. 

 The value of imports in 1899 was 111,992,349 

 rupees, and of exports 111,955,937 rupees. The 

 exports of tea were 51,864,763 rupees in value; of 

 plumbago, 22,255,400 rupees; of coconut kernels 

 and fiber, 14,353,403 rupees. The tonnage entered 

 and cleared in 1899 was 7,439,205. The Maldive 

 Islands, having a population of 30,000 Moham- 

 medans, who are sailors and traders, are tributary 

 to the Ceylon Government. The total population 

 of Ceylon at the census of March 31, 1901, was 

 3,576,990, including 3,360 military, 4,104 seamen, 

 and 4,913 prisoners of war. The coolie immi- 

 grants employed on estates increased from 262.262 

 in 1891 to 441,523 in 1901. The public expendi- 

 ture of Ceylon, chiefly from loans, has recently 

 been very heavy, 12,750,000 rupees being estimated 

 for the financial year 1902 on the harbor works 

 and graving dock" at Colombo, three lines of rail- 

 way, and irrigation works, all of which are ex- 

 pected to be completed by 1904. Drainage works 

 and water-supply for Colombo are next to be 

 ttiken in hand, and a railroad will be built from 

 Colombo through a rich native cinnamon and 

 coconut district to Chilaw. Attention is being 

 given to the pearl oyster fisheries on the northern 

 coast with a view to preserving and cultivating 

 the oysters. The restriction of tea shipments 

 from both India and Ceylon has had the effect of 

 improving prices in the London market. Arabi 

 Pasha and AH Fehmy, the last of the Egyptian 

 leaders who were exiled to Ceylon in 1883, de- 

 parted in the summer of 1901. There were then 

 already over 5,000 Boer prisoners confined in the 

 camp at Diyatalawa. The depression in the price 

 of tea has caused more attention to be given to 

 other products. There were in 1901 under tea 

 393,000 acres; under cacao, 24,000 acres; under 

 cardamoms, 7,000 acres; under rubber, 2,500 

 acres. Some cinchona was also planted. Coffee, 

 which once covered 272,000 acres, occupied only 

 8,000 acres. The great native industries in coco- 

 nut and other palms, cinnamon, and citronella 

 grass take up a great area, and the Government 

 is extending rice .cultivation by restoring old irri- 

 gation works and constructing new ones. The" 

 population increased in ten years 19.4 per cent. 

 The population of Colombo in 1901 was 154,279. 

 The permanent population of the island, exclud- 

 ing soldiers, seamen, and prisoners, was 3,564,613, 

 comprising 1,460,990 Singhalese, 873,580 Kan- 

 dyans, 950,844 Tamils, including immigrants, 224.- 

 066 Moormen, or Mohammedans, 11,242 Malays, 

 23,256 Burghers and Eurasians, 6,374 Europeans, 

 and 14,264 others. 



Houff-Konff, ceded to Great Britain by China in 

 1841, is the distributing point for British com- 

 merce with the far East. The Governor in 1901 

 was Sir Henry A. Blake. The area of the island 

 is 29 square miles; population, 221,441, mainly 



