12 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



September 1, 191S. 



Imperial system of defence. It is not 

 included in the estimates hitherto voted 

 by the Imperial Parliament, but it will 

 have to be maintained, and in due 

 course it will have to be replaced. 

 Upon whom is the burden of this 

 maintenance and replacement to fall l" 

 The temptation to meet these further 

 charges from the same easy and con- 

 venient source of revenue, where there 

 are no elected representatives to keep 

 jealous guard over the people's purse, 

 will, now that the precedent has been 

 established, be almost irresistible. 



A PROSPEROUS STATE. 



As a justification of this particular 

 transaction it has been urged that this 

 "gift" of ;^2, 250,000 will not involve a 

 single penny of increased taxation upon 

 the inhabitants of the Federated Malay 

 States. Under the regime established by 

 the Imperial Government the prosperit\- 

 of these States has been abundant and 

 overflowing. The taxes fall not upon 

 the mass of the natives, but upon the 

 mining and planting industries, and the 

 tin and rubber booms have produced a 

 recurring series of surpluses to the an- 

 nual Budgets. The whole cost of the 

 battleship can be paid out of the accu- 

 mulated surplus. This is one of those 

 half-truths that are more dangerous 

 and misleading than a lie. Such repre- 

 sentations can only impress those who 

 have never considered the facts which lie 

 behind the Budget surplus, or who are 

 ignorant of the conditions which prevail 

 in the Malay Peninsula. 



This surplus in the Malay Treasur)-, 

 which is now being used to lighten the 

 burden of taxation upon the taxpayer 

 in the United Kingdom, might have 

 been used to reduce taxation in the 

 Malay States, or to improve the social 

 condition of the inhabitants, or to 

 develop and open up the country. The 

 existence of such a surplus affords an 

 unrivalled opportunity of making the 

 Federated Malay States an object-lesson 

 to the world in the development of a 

 tropical territory and a tropical people, 

 and of solving some of the most difficult 



problems that confront us in our varied 

 Empire. 



IGNORANCE AND DEATH. 

 In mere material development the 

 amount of this surplus could have been 

 absorbed over and over again. Vast 

 areas have still to be opened up b)' 

 roads, railways, and irrigation work. 

 Sanitation is still of the most primitive 

 nature. Sir Frank Swettenham has ven- 

 tured to suggest that some small portion 

 might be saved from the battleship and 

 expended in the direct interest of the 

 people of the country, in the promotion 

 of the study of tropical medicine or 

 tropical agriculture. There is a lament- 

 able lack of provision for the intel- 

 lectual and social development of the 

 people. Considerably less than i per 

 cent, of the total revenue is expended 

 upon education. Out of 90,000 Malay 

 children of school age onl>' 22,000 are 

 at school, and practicall\- no provision is 

 made for the education of the children 

 of the thousands of Ind'an and Chinese 

 coolie labourers. In the words of the 

 last annual report of the Federated 

 Malay States, " it is not a record to be 

 proud of in a progressive age." Facili- 

 ties for higher education and for the 

 training of doctors and engineers are 

 practically non-existent. These States, 

 whose prosperity astonishes the world, 

 and which can vote gifts of ;^2, 250,000 

 out of surplus, are in reality based upon 

 a vast organisation of coolie labour, of 

 men divorced from the soil, subsisting on 

 a very low standard of civilisation, and 

 denied all share in the enormous pros- 

 perity which their labour i^roduces. In 

 the State of Negri Sembilan, one-fifth 

 of the total number of unindentured 

 Indian labourers died in 191 1 owing to 

 bad conditions ! In conclusion, Mr. 

 Scott says, "If we had been fighting 

 with our backs to the wall, this thing 

 might have been done as a last resort, 

 but the temporar)- triumph of daz/.ling 

 Europe by calling up naval reinforce- 

 ments out of the East as an offset to the 

 German navy in time of peace, has been 

 dearly purchased by the introduction of 

 a victor's principle into Imperial policy. 



