Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/355

Rh Government buildings, naval hospital, schools for Europeans and Chinese, and handsome private residences. Roads and railways, electricity and many industrial concerns have all been introduced. There are afforested preserves with nurseries and gardens kept up by a vote of £5000 a year. In the harbour is the immense floating dock which can lift a vessel of 16,000 tons. Within the dock- yard enclosure are navy store yards, and there is a staff of somewhere about fifty Europeans, as well as the Chinese. Germans may well point with pride at what has been achieved in a few years—but this is no colonisation—for it must be remembered that no money has been spared, and that the Fatherland has devoted to this purpose well over £6,500,000 sterling, and continues enormous grants, not as loans, but as free grants. But how wisely expended, as a rich return will be eventually received. In striking contrast to this is the British concession of Wei-hai-wei, the value of which is great, but which, through vacillation and neglect of the home Government, has in no way developed or fulfilled its promise. Indeed, indeed, it is time to “‘wake up!”]

What countless beautiful palm-clad islands we steamed amongst—1001 of them, some one said —all valuable, all beautiful, and as yet with a future before them, numbers of Malay phraus and other craft plying these lovely waters.

Blitong, or Billiton, south-east of Banca, is 1800 square miles in area, and its highest point 3117 feet. Then there is Sinkop Isle, Lingga Isle, and, with many others, Bintang, lying directly opposite Singapore. This is called the Rhio- Lingga Archipelago, a mass of reefs, shoals, and islands at the end of the Malay Peninsula. The Dutch have a prosperous port at Rhio Isle, where many boats call, and which is full of Chinese and