World Film and Television Progress (1938)

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among the Sakai by H. D. Noone, and some are accessible now, if you don't mind riding on an elephant.' 'The Chinese (the second face) have been coming to Malaya for centuries looking for trade and tin. They got both. They own nearly all the towns of Malaya, more than half the tin fields, a good deal of the rubber lands, and do nearly all the shopkeeping. The Chinaman just works and works and works. He is the busy bee, the ant, the go-getter, the Jew, the Jap or what you will, of Malaya. If he is unlucky he dies pulling his barrow along Weld Quay or falls down dead between the shafts of his rickshaw after pulling it for fifteen years. If he is lucky he will finish up a millionaire towkay, with a fine fat belly and a red, round face. He will have achieved the glazed, bland, philosophical look that brandy buys. He will have taken several later wives and have a host of children, but his first wife will roar and raise hell in the kitchen to the end. "Brandy and Guinness are the popular aphrodisiacs. For the wealthy towkay, rhinoceros horn or tiger's testicle are more potent delights. The Chinese work hard at everything. 0 "The Europeans (the third face) are the rarest face in Malaya, but it is possible to live in Singapore for years and see little else. Empire builders and pioneers do not live here any more. "Someone has called Malaya a middle class paradise and that is just about it. Bankers, brokers, shippers, traders (wholesale, of course, so as to keep their social standing), doctors, dentists, divines — just that kind. There are lots of big executives, but they all have to bow mighty low when they go back to the office to explain to London why the profits are down. They leave no mark on the country except Golf Courses, Race Tracks and big Hotels — just like London — and all waiting for the day to retire with £600 a year to Tonbridge, Bexhill, Bognor. "From the days of Stamford Raffles the country has had a series of grand Colonial Governors. The civil service is superb. "The Tamil (the fourth face) was born to do Malaya donkey work. Every job that is dirty, undesirable and monotonous is the Tamil's. From the time he lands in Malaya he finds that the lot for which God created him is incessant work, and the very occasional wherewithal to get drunk. Doubtless Malaya objects that God might have created a better worker, for the lean gangling Tamil, with his big awkward feet can and does break in record time anv machine or tool e\er in vented, create chaos that will take a European days to repair. In spite of Shaw the Tamil is also the world's noisiest worker — his is the only noisy face in Malaya — and he adds to the pandemonium of the day by his incessant brawling and wife beating to make the night hideous. "Still the old Tamil does not do too badly, for he goes back to Malaya for subsequent spells and often settles down altogether. On all wealthy estates paternalism is practised, and it pays to cure his malaria-sodden body and care for his diet for he fills out well and breeds mightily, which is more than he can do in his native India. So Malaya gets more and better Tamils — and needs them — for Malaya can use plenty donkeys. "rpHE Malayans (the fifth face) number less J. than half the faces in Malaya. It might be said that they are dispossessed tenants, but things have worked out pretty well for them. Successive Colonial Governors have been so charmed with this race that they have seen to it that the Malay has had a square deal. Certainly he is the most independent, most untouched and least drawn into our own economic snare of all our 'subject peoples'. "They have been dispossessed in one sense ; their major export trade was continuous and successful piracy till a century ago. The staple home industry was family feud and inter-state war, and' in quieter times the brighter spirits amused their days with knifing Chinese travellers and raiding Chinese villages. But these colourful times are gone. The Malay toils not and his wife does the spinning, but he will follow for days and perform heroics of endurance and abstinence in pursuit of tiger, crocodile, wild elephant or anything worth hunting. He has no use for mining or large scale agriculture, but he is a super craftsman of gold, silver or wood. He is said to love ceremonial and uniforms, but it is doubtful if he takes them seriously. As a well-graced actor he takes pride in the neat precision of his movements— but that is about all. "Beautiful people these and worth a whole film to themselves. They have the loveliest babies in the world, somewhat pot-bellied from premature rice and bananas which may disturb their centres of gravity but never their good natures. The youths have every athletic grace without the athletic vice of over strenuousness, the men bestride their world with dignity and poise, proud and of a masterly courtesy. The aged chatter away their days in exchange of rhymed proverbs or tasting for the hundredth time the epic stories of old" wars and the high days of piracy. No sensible Malay will ever go to bed as long as a few friends remain to yarn or the fiddler keeps on playing. The next day doesn't matter much. Let the other chap worry about new roads, new railways, telephones and sewers — it will probably improve the Malay's lot but the other chap seems to like it. Amused and tolerant and non-co-operating. The Malay's only clock is the sun and he is generally late on that." 55