Si 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



PARA RUBBER. 



The Editor, 



The Agricultural Bulletin. 



Singapore. 



Sir, — I have read with much interest, tempered with regret, Mr. 

 BURGESS' " Report on a visit to Great Britain to investigate the 

 India Rubber industry in its relation to the growth and prepara- 

 tion of raw India Rubber in the Malay Peninsula" published in 

 the December Bulletin. 



My regret was occasioned by the perusal of paragraphs II and 12 

 "Quality of plantation rubber," 



Like Mr. BURGESS, I was in England last June " investigating 

 the rubber industry in relation to" etc. etc., and though not sup- 

 ported by such distinguished introductions, met a good many people 

 interested in the industry. Amongst them, I am glad to say, I did 

 not find that there was any uniformity of opinion unfavourable to 

 the quality of our rubber. As late as last August, the Managing 

 Director of a manufacturing firm, whose name is a household word 

 in the rubber world, speaking of a few small lots of rubber they 

 had bought from this estate, said that they had not discovered any 

 inferiority up to that time. If there is any inferiority, he added, 

 it remains to be found in the lasting proportion of the manufactured 

 article. 



The late Dr. Weber has been described as "the greatest Rubber 

 Chemist" the world has ever known ; and one would like to learn a 

 little more than Mr. BURGESS tells us about the Silvertown test, before 

 discrediting the reports of such an authority. A general statement 

 that test had proved the inferiority of plantation rubber in tensile 

 strength is somewhat discounted when one considers the nature of 

 the evidence which Mr. BURGESS find sufficient to condemn its 

 keeping quotation. 



I submit that the lasting proportion of manufactured rubber 

 cannot be ascertained by keeping sample of the crude product in 

 air-tight jars. Such a test can have with practical value unless it is 

 proposed to use rubber in a crude form or unless there are any 

 planters who may desire to store their rubber for a few years. 



Even as a test of the keeping qualities of crude rubbers, it would 

 be necessary to know that chemicals detrimental to the rubber itself 

 had not been used in its preparation. 



I believe that in igo2 and 1903 the use of certain acid to assist 

 coagulation was general but I have before me as I write, a slab of 

 rubber — three quarters of an inch in thickness — which has not been 

 in contact with chemicals. 



