C. D. Mackellar

“ Partly because it is true, and partly because the Germans in the East and on their big liners are carefully, quietly, zealously doing all they can to spread the idea and make people believe it. As they never see a British ship now, nor a British flag, but everywhere the German flag and German people, what can they do but believe it? All honour to Germany for her clever foresight and her successful endeavours to push her fortunes; it is not Germany we are to blame but ourselves. ”

“ Sourabaya is, after Batavia, the important port of Java. It contains Chinese houses and temples, Arab mosques and Malay buildings, to say nothing of the spotless white houses of the Dutch; the land is a brilliant garden, and has an additional charm in its own active volcano Bromo, which rejoices in the largest crater in the world, three miles in diameter, a bottomless pit of seething vapours and fiery floods, with volumes of smoke and red-hot stones cast up to fall back again. ”

“ Could no British statesman—or politician—look far enough ahead to see what was coming, what was inevitable when the Sandwich Islands passed to America? Do they realise what the fortified Panama Canal is going to mean? Do they believe that the Americans will let any temporary checks interfere with their ultimate aim of fortifying that canal and assuming full power? Do they believe that the Republic of Panama—in reality a creation of the Americans—is destined to be anything but a stopgap? ”

“ What have such people to do with the brave and sturdy men and women, boys and girls, who are doing their best to build up a mighty Empire over the seas—the real British? Yes, it must be from over the seas, from north and south and east and west, that come those who are to save our honour and our Flag, and to stir up the slumbering ones here—only slumbering, I hope and believe—nay, I feel sure of it—for most certainly the day is near when the people themselves will demand that every citizen is trained to take his share in the defence of his land. ”

“ I ask, for it seems so strange to be sitting opposite an old friend out here, smoking and drinking—but good it is to see again a friend, and one whose face and name can only recall such pleasant memories. I ask many questions, and he tells me many interesting things—but all the time, delighted and charmed as I am with the beauty and character of my surroundings, I am only too conscious of that terrible odour. It must be bad drains, is so strong, and has pervaded every inch of Batavia I have seen since I arrived at Pandjong Priak Wharf—the train, the streets, the canal, and now the hotel. ”

“ The Residency and the Club are good, and the whole town is a beautiful garden. There are watch-towers for the police, and when a Malay “runs amok” they beat drums to warn the people, and sally forth to kill him, so it is said. The vegetation is remarkably green, and the water oe the land-locked harbour, from which no outlet is visible, is so clear that the coral and even minute objects are seen at the bottom, at the depth of eight fathoms, and the fish inhabiting these exquisite coral groves are as rainbow hued as the coral. ”

“ Then the more Dutch town begins. Very hand- some white stone houses—white marble too—with tiled roofs and pillared porticoes, most of them one-storeyed on account of earthquakes. The large, handsome porticoes and the rooms beyond are quite open, even the interiors of the bedrooms visible. Quantities of beautiful flowering plants in ornamental pots are placed about, and the inhabitants are lolling in easy-chairs in scanty attire—a great air of freedom and ease pervades it all. Beautiful grounds surround each house, and there are no walls or fences at all sometimes. ”

“ The people, though professedly Mohammedans, are in reality mostly pagans. This rich, beautiful, populous land is a Garden of Eden, despite the volcanoes, and the people are both contented and happy under Dutch rule, which suits them; and long may they continue under it, despite some present clouds in the sky.
The great buildings and cities of former days seem to have been extraordinary in size and magnificence. How strange, then, it seems that the dwellers in Java of those days had not penetrated south from island to island on to New Guinea and Australia. ”

“ But if the Netherlands once join the German Empire, or are forced to do so—then good-bye to us in the East and to India. However, there is Japan; she cannot hanker after new rivals in the Germans, especially as she would like all these islands herself. There are countless interesting political questions here. Japan, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States have all parts to play, and there is an awakened China to reckon with at some not far distant date. It is the East that is to become the burning question of the world. ”

“ In the Netherlands they have not arrived at this idea by any means; but the Dutch have ever been noted for playing a mere selfish policy which blinds them to outside things. What does it matter to them, they say, what happens to other countries, so long as they are left in peace, they quite forgetting that any war between two Great Powers in Europe must affect them, and seriously. Who can say what is coming? For instance, many Dutch people have said to me that, in the supposition of a war between Germany and Great Britain, the British would defend them. ”

“ The cultivation of the clove and the quantity of sago grown supply the inhabitants with much they require, and the sea yields fish of various sorts. The white houses of the Dutch mingle with the palm-woven houses of the natives. A favourite but exciting beverage is the sageroe, made from the sugar palm. The coral reefs and the creatures inhabiting them are of great interest, as is the coral itself. Tropical flowers and foliage, beautiful birds—there being over twenty species belonging to Amboyna—shells, coral, fish—there is no end to the interest here, and it is a land of plenty. ”

“ These white-pillared porticoes are gay, too, with flowers in Chinese and Japanese vases. Apparently these fine houses spread out for miles, and many are without walls or fences, It never struck me before how we wall and bar ourselves into our domains at home; but no wonder when one thinks of the coarse, ill- mannered, ungentle, unpleasant, dishonest people we have to keep out of them! For, in truth, when you think it out and compare our “free-born Britons ’’ and other Europeans of the lower classes with the same class of people in the East, it does give one pause! ”

“ We are not the only nation that must “wake up.” [Now we hear the good tidings that the great British King-Emperor will have himself crowned in his Empire of India—what a splendid and striking fact it will be in history—and we may hope that other parts of his great Empire may sometime also see their sovereigns—it is the most wise of proceedings.]
I wonder if this climate—and the Durian—will exercise as enervating an effect on the German, Japanese, or American activity as it has done on that of others? It certainly is not a climate that permits of much energy. ”

“ People are most friendly, kind, and amiable—who they are I have not grasped. I have been at the Cricket Club Pavilion, and watched most interesting and amusing water sports from the balcony of the other club-house, which overhangs the sea. All the élite of Singapore were there: smart ladies, the Governor and suite, Lord Beauchamp, fresh from British New Guinea and his Australian Governorship, and I don’t know who all. Wright and a pleasant man called Harrison looked after me. ”

“ Then the tug-of-war was most exciting, all sorts of natives, Chinese, Javanese, Acheenese, Indian coolies, and Indian soldiers, and so on took part; it was eventually won by the Chinese, who pulled every one over. These sports, in which all participate, so please the natives of all sorts, and make them fond of British rule. To keep people happy and good-humoured is everything. The pity is that they are learning that there are other great nations coming forward as rivals. ”

“ A great part of this lively island is covered with forest, but much of it is really a garden. There are splendid trees, and the teak is famous. Rice, coffee, chinchona, all sorts of fruit—in fact, everything grows. Two hundred and forty species of birds are known, of which forty are peculiar to Java: there are wild peacock, jungle fowl, pigeon, quail, and tigers, leopards, rhinoceroses, wild dogs, and wild pigs; monkeys, wild oxen, and deer add to its attractions, to say nothing of the durian, which does not allow itself to be overlooked. ”

“ That the day of the British is over—that is the idea that is spread now through the Dutch East Indies—purposely spread—and which has extended to our own priceless possessions of Singapore and Hong-Kong, that is spreading throughout the whole East, and is it the East alone? The natives of all sorts believe it. We only hold India, Ceylon, and our Eastern possessions through prestige— that gone, they go too. ”

“ I admire much the fat, rich-looking Chinese driving about in grand carriages with liveried Malay servants on the box, and I saw three stout Chinamen packed into one rickshaw, and their coolie nearly fainting with the weight. These Chinese become rich and prosperous under our Government, but if they went to China would lose their wealth and their heads—but it will not be always so. ”

“ Is he first to drive the doubtful foreigner who sweats upon us from the door, and rid us of those “naturalised” undesirable aliens who are battening and fattening upon us—those rich nobodies who desert their own land to play mean little parts in ours, and call themselves British? What have they to do with the holding together and building of our Empire? ”

“ I poor old Malay sailor man, but I know you and I like you. Now here to-day come one man and he say to me, ‘ Here, you old Malay, you take these things under your clothes, and smuggle them for me, and I give you two shillings.” What I do that for? I old sailor man, but I honest man, I proud man. I no do that. I no do what not honest—no, never in my life. Why that man him dare come insult me because I poor old Malay sailor man? ”

“ We discussed Sumatra and the endless war the Dutch wage with the Acheenese, which has gone on for somewhere about forty years. The Acheenese say—or once said—they would be content if the British got Sumatra, an improbable thing now—the Germans are simply dying to possess it, and one of their much-discussed aims is to have a settlement on its shores directly opposite Singapore, so as to render that key to the East useless whilst we hold it. Such a thing is out of the question. Singapore is now too important for us to allow any other Power to interfere with it. ”

“ Then in the afternoon were gorgeous and amusing New Year’s Day sports for the natives —really a fine scene, and every one in holiday humour. What an intensely pleasant thing it is to see people happy! ”

“ Land is being reclaimed, and additional wharfage and other facilities are in hand, and the island of Weh with its harbour, Sabang, is considered one of the most beautiful, desirable, and valuable places in the beautiful East—yet we gave it back to the Dutch! Unless Singapore looks out for herself, she will have more than a formidable rival here. ”

“ Then next to Celebes comes the great island of Borneo, larger than France and Germany combined, south of which, across the Java Sea, stretches that long line of islands, over 1200 miles in length, from Sumatra to Timor, the nearest to Australia, and often called the Sunda Islands. Between them and Borneo and the Malay Peninsula are the shallow seas, and north-west of Borneo the China Sea. The deep seas and the shallow make the real division between the systems, though they merge one into the other. Here, too, is the great volcanic belt, for everywhere are volcanoes—active and extinct. ”

“ After the savage cannibals and the wildness of New Guinea it all seems startlingly civilised here, and the life so interesting. Strange-looking bullocks are feeding about, and one hears bulls roaring and can hardly believe they are only bullfrogs! ”

“ What are they but foul-mouthed, foul-thinking, foul-living savages? No “savage” land contains such beings—but it seldom strikes us to think about them in such a light, we are so accustomed to them.
The roads here are a sight to see, splendid and beautiful roads, crowded with streams of natives pouring in with their produce to the market. There were scores of cyclists, including Chinese and Javanese; many handsome carriages, and also many well-dressed Chinese driving about, and in some roads were trams. ”

“ What is spontaneous is all right, what we force ourselves to do is a bore.
There is the monkey—ought I to have contributed to its ease and well-being also?—no, really, that would be too much! The deck passengers give it its daily due! “Preety Cockay”—ah! he makes up for everything, and no one can say I neglected him—I never got the chance. This introspective mood annoys me; it is so much better never to think. It is all the old Malay; he made me feel as if somehow I had been so selfish and unthinking.
Batavia, Java ”

“ The Princess Juliana is the most important child in Europe. Nevertheless, sovereigns of great empires can no longer remain quietly at home as of yore; the world and its peoples have changed; the over-seas peoples have grown so rich and powerful that their claim upon their monarchs is as great a one as that of the home people. ”