MAKING A RUBBER PLANTATION 71 



ground rises a wall of jungle. We are right when we 

 jump to the conclusion that the rubber lands were once 

 jungle too, and when we tell ourselves that, in spite 

 of the fact that the bulk of the population of this 

 Peninsula is Oriental, the plantations, roads, and 

 railways owe their origin to Western enterprise and a 

 Western scheme of development. 



The Malay Peninsula consists of the Straits Settle- 

 ments — Singapore, Malacca, Province Wellesley, the 

 Bindings, and Penang, which are British, and of a 

 number of Native States. But British influence is 

 quickly becoming as active in the Native States as in 

 those parts of the country which are British possessions. 

 Indeed, four of the native divisions — Negri Sembilan, 

 Selangor, Perak, and Pahang — are united as the 

 Federated Malay States, and administered on up-to- 

 date progressive British lines by a Federal Council. 

 The Governor of the Straits Settlements, who is High 

 Commissioner of the Federated Malay States, presides 

 over the Council, and its membership consists further 

 of the Sultans of the four States in question, the British 

 Resident of each, and four unofficial members, three of 

 whom are British and one Chinese. Three other 

 States have a British adviser, and the Sultan of Johore 

 has quite recently sought the aid of a similar official 

 to help him develop his territory, particularly with a 

 view to furthering the interests of rubber-growing. 



The principal rubber lands in Malay are situated in 

 the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, 

 and Johore. We have come to a rubber estate in the 

 heart of the Federated Malay States, where the planta- 

 tion area is about to be enlarged. Another tract of 

 jungle is to be cleared and planted with Hovea. 



