Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/929

 CAMBODIA 877

Cambodia.

Cambodia is bounded on the south by Cochin China, on the east by Annain, <>u the north by Laos and Siani, on the north- 5 km, and on

the west by the Gulf of Siam. Area, 45,000 square miles ; population in 1919, 2,000,000 (estimated), of whom 1,100 were Europeans (excluding the military forces), 108,500 Annamites, and 140,000 Chinese. The present King, Sisowath, in 1904 succeeded his late brother, Norodom, who had recognised the French protectorate in 1863. ^ The country is divided into 42 provinces. The three chief towns are Pnom-Penh (population 85,000), the capital of the territory. Battambang, and Kampot, a seaport but not accessible for sea-going vessels. The budget for 1920 balanced at 6,500,0 00 piastres, including a sum of 525,000 piastres allowed for the civil list of the king and princes. There are 60 schools with 4,000 pupils.

The soil is fertile, but only a part of it is under cultivation. That cultiva- tion is not intensive, as the natives are scarce and not very fond of work. Knormous tracts of rich land are available for plantation of cotton, tea, rubber, and coffee. The overflow of the Mekong river fills up the Great Lake which occupies the middle of Western Cambodia. With the low-water season the lake slowly empties and leaves innumerable ponds on the ground it covered during the high -on. These pon Is are filled with an enormous

quantity of fish suitable for salting and smoking. This is the principal native industry, and the export to China of Mekong fish attains in some years 30,000 tons. The chief product of Cambodia is rice, of which that country exports over 300,000 tons yearly, but as the export is made by way of Clolon (where the rice is milled) and Saigon (where it is shipped), these figures appear in the customs statistics of Cochin China. Amongst the other products are kapok, cotton, pepper, salt tish, hides, cattle, palm-sugar, and tobacco, and amongst the produce to become more important in the near future, coffee, rubber, and iron. Pepper is grown by 61 villages with 4,800 planters, the production being over 800,000 kilogrammes annually. Cotton growing is extending ; the production is estimated at 9,000 tons, the whole of which is exported. Cattle breeding is a flourishing native industry, especially between Pn<Jm-Penh and Manila. Salt is worked. There is a cotton-ginning mill at Khsach-Kandal, near Pnum-Penh, and another at Kompong-han. The external trade is carried on mostly through Saigon in Cochin-China. The imports comprise salt, wine, and textiles ; the exports comprise salt fish, cotton, tobacco, rice, also boats. In 1920, 4,236 vessels of 179,874 tons entered, and 10,806 vessels of 312,166 tons cleared the ports of Cambodia.

Cambodia possessed in 1916 500 miles of good metalled roads and nearly 1,000 miles of unmetalled roads and roads in course of construction. The chief roads are from Saigon to the Siamese frontier, via the left side of the river from Banan ; on the right side of the Mekong, from Pnom-Penh. through the district sonth-west of the lakes ; the road from Pn6m-Penh to the Gult of Siam ; and the road from Saigon to Kratie. The Mekong and the Greaf Lake with their affluents give a t>tal of 875 miles of waterways, of which about 370 are not navigable to launches during the low- water season. Sea- going steamers can easily reach Pnom-Penh, which has good quays and embankments.

Of all the countries of the Far East, Cambodia is among the richest in ancient monuments.