Few people, after reading "One Hundred Years of Singapore," by, Walter Makepeace and others, John Murray, 1921 (of. which this book may be considered a complementary, volume) would realize how greatly the prosperity of Singapore is due forthe amazing industry, selfoncel= fice and business enterprise of the Chinese, From the Fifth Century, onwards, the Malay Archipelago and Peninsula' had attracted large numbers of Chinese traders. They, ame and went with the Monsoons, but wherever they found settled feonditions and prospects of per~ Tanent trade they took native wives, whom they left in charge of their establishments when they returned to their native places with the produce they had collected. As the "children of these mixed mare nages grew up, the boys went, to China for their education; the girls remained, but were never permitted intermarry with the natives. Hence, wherever these. traders settled, they formed very distinctive and growing communities, strongly Chinese in sentiment, religion and Sir Stamford Raffles recognized, both in Java and Bencoolen, the value of the Chinese, and foresaw, that they would always form the largest portion of the community in the Emporium which he founded in 1819. He knew that they must be governed largely through their own chiefs and was content to trust to time to educate the native-born and permanent settlers to understand the value of British Law and Justice and the true meaning of freedom and self-restraint, Mr. Ong Siang has given us a deeply interesting book, obvious labour of love and involving a vast amount of patient research. We can trace the results. founder's enlightened policy in the steady growth of the binding force fof citizenship, of public spirit and benevolence among this important section of our fellow-subjects. The strict adherence to decades, which was probably necessary in dealing with the detailed accounts of the origin and history of the many pro minent Chinese families, is, however, a very grave disadvantage in other respects. Topics of great interest, such as Secret Societies and Native Riots; Farming the Taxes; Gamblings the Opium Question: the Development of Tin Mining and of Rubber Plantations would have gain" ed enormously by being treated parately. It is inevitable that the English reader should be a little irritated at having constantly to refer to the excellent Index before in the "Cambridge Review.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.