54 THE TEACHING OP MALAY IN EUROPE 



The School of Oriental Studies in London is designed " to 

 give instruction in the languages of Eastern and African peoples, 

 Ancient and Modern, and in the Literature, History, Religion and 

 Customs of those peoples, especially with a view to the needs of 

 persons about to proceed to the East or to Africa for the pursuit 

 of study and research, commerce or a profession." Special inter- 

 collegiate arrangements with the London School of Economics will 

 be made lor instruction in the sociology and anthropology of the less 

 civilized races. Inter-collegiate arrangements will also be made 

 for instruction in phonetics; and modern phonetic methods will be 

 usa\ to facilitate the acquirement of correct pronunciation. 



It is to be hoped that large local commercial firms and estates 

 will recognise the value of preliminary instruction in Malay for 

 young men embarking on careers in the Malay Peninsula; a value 

 fully recognised by prominent business men acquainted with 

 colonial needs. Cadets, too, might well spend the few months they 

 pass in England between their selection for the service and their 

 departure for the East in attending the School. For such students 

 elementary practical teaching is provided. I had the pleasure of 

 reading Mr. Blagden's opening lecture and can attest its illuminat- 

 ing simplicity. But, it is hoped that an advanced course also may 

 be wanted. The library, the comparative method of teaching, the 

 lectures on Arabic and Sanskrit at the same School would all be 

 profitable to any man, on leave in London, who might desire to 

 perfect his knowledge of Malay linguistics, literature and history. 

 Sanskrit and Pali and India must always be to us what Malay and 

 Javanese and the Dutch Indies are to Holland; but it is high time 

 that some of us at least should get to know the best that is written 

 about things Malayan, to recognise that there is a best, a standard 

 of scholarship, in Malay studies. For those, who have that ambi- 

 tion, I can say confidently that a course of the lectures provided 

 will dispel the hallowed notion that the highest authority on Malay 

 matters is a kampong elder. 



Jour. Straits Branch 



