Excerpt from The Malay Peninsula: A Record of British Progress in the Middle East

Not the least interesting and valuable feature of this new material is the addition it makes to our knowledge of Captain Francis Light, the founder of Penang, who shares with Sir Stamford Raffles the honour of establishing British power in Malaya. In the later chapters of the book will be found, following upon a description of the Feder ated Malay States, an account of the non-federated States, including Trengganu, Kelantan, Kedah, and Perlis, which were brought within the British sphere of influence in Malaya by the anglo-siamese Agreement of 1909. This territory, parts of which are little known, presents charac teristics of peculiar interest from the social and political standpoint. It also has undoubtedly, a great commercial future, as it provides a wide field for planting and mining enterprise. The new East Coast Railway, which, when completed, will link up the British Malayan railway system with the Siamese lines, and ultimately, doubtless, with the Indian and Chinese railways, is to be carried through the centre of Pahang and Kelantan, and in all probability the ruler of Trengganu, when he recognises the beneficial effects of the railway on neighbouring territories, will seek the co-operation of the Federated Malay States authorities in extending the line to Trengganu. Generally Speaking, close attention has been given to the purely modern aspects of Malayan development. The remarkable tin mines of the Federated Malay States, which supply the world with half the tin it consumes, are fully described, as well as the equally striking rubber industry, which seems destined in the near future to contribute almost as large a proportion of the rubber used by civilisation. Incident ally, glimpses will be caught of the changes which are converting this no-man's-land of a few decades since into the home of one of the most thriving and contented communities owning the British sway.

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