at Harrow. Up to 1865 he engaged in journalism, but was then called to the bar and soon worked up an extensive practice, especially at the Central Criminal Court, London. He sat in the House of Commons as Conservative member for Shrewsbury from 1870 to 1874, and from 1879 to 1892 he was a judge of the High Court of judicature at Allahabad. He was knighted on retirement, and four years later he returned to journalism as editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. He retired in 1909, and died in London June 4 1914.
STRAITS (DARDANELLES AND BOSPORUS.)—The waterway
formed by the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora and the Bosporus,
which connects the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, has possessed
marked political importance from the earliest times. This
importance, however, grew with increasing rapidity during the
20th century. The increase of population, the growth of commerce,
the construction of railways, and the rise of nations in
the basin of the Black Sea, enormously added to the political
and military significance of the Straits. And while these factors
gained in weight yearly, the Ottoman Empire, which held the
guardianship of the Straits, declined yearly in vigour and strength.
Correspondingly, it became more and more the object of national
intrigue and ambition on the part of foreign Powers, whose
designs would benefit were they in a position to control the
Straits themselves.
These matters received forcible illustration during the World War. Problems having their origin in the existence of the Straits became then of supreme importance, even to the extent of prolonging or shortening the period 'of war. At the Peace Conference, too, questions of the Straits became acute. The seaborne commerce of the 100 million inhabitants occupying the basin of the Black Sea must perforce pass through the Straits. By railway communication with central Asia this region, too, is concerned with control of the Straits. The traditional Russian ambition for a warm water port looked to Constantinople and the Straits for fulfilment; and in 1915 the Powers in alliance with Russia accepted the Russian claim to the great position. Apart from Russia and Turkey, three states Georgia, Rumania and Bulgaria had a coast-line confined to the Black Sea, and therefore depend upon the Straits as the one route for their maritime trade with the outer seas. To Germany, control of the Straits in war by her ally Turkey meant the isolation and strangling of her enemies, Russia and Rumania. In fact the closing of the Straits at this time had much to do with the collapse of Russia, the outbreak of the revolution, and the prolongation of the war. With such possibilities and interests hanging upon them, the Peace Conference dealt comprehensively with the Straits in the Treaty of Sevres. Under this treaty they were thrown open to all navigation in peace and war, without distinction of flag, and blockade of these waters was prohibited. An International " Commission of the Straits " was established to control the waterway. And still further to ensure that military interruption should not take place, a demilitarized " Zone of the Straits " was created, embracing all adjoining coastal territory. Within this area all military works and fortifications were to be razed, and the construction of similar works was forbidden. (W. J. C .*)
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS AND DEPENDENCIES (see 25.980[1]).
The resident pop. of the Straits Settlements proper, according
to the census of 1911, was 705,405, divided as follows: Singapore,
303,321; Penang, 141,559; Province Wellesley, 128,978; Malacca,
124,081; the Bindings, 7,466. Males outnumbered females nearly
as 2 to 1. Included also in the Government of the Straits Settlements
are Labuan (pop. in 1911, 6,546), Christmas Island (1,369)
and the Cocos Islands (749).
In Labuan and Cocos Islands males did not greatly outnumber females, but in Christmas Island, with an almost wholly labouring pop., males were 1,328 and females 41.
In 1919 the pop. of the whole colony was estimated at 827,719. That of Christmas I. was 514 on Jan. I and 617 on Dec. 31.
In the colony the birth-rate in 1919 was 30-3 per thousand. The death-rate, which was 46.45 per thousand in 1911, fell to 29.15 in 1915, rose, with an epidemic of influenza, to 43-85 in 1918, and was 33.04 in 1919. The principal causes of death in the last year were infant diseases (5,848) and malaria (4,623), and the other most serious maladies as returned were tuberculosis, beri-beri, pneumonia, and dysentery, but probably many deaths were due primarily to influenza. The epidemic of this disease resulted in the revival, after 30 years, of the native wang-kang ceremony at Malacca, in which a model boat is constructed in a temporary temple, and is subsequently burnt as a sacrifice to some supposedly neglected god.
Principal nationalities and religions were shown by the census as follows:
Nationalities
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Chinese
Malay
Indian
Europ. and Amer.
Straits Setts, proper Labuan .... Christmas I. ... Cocos Is.
366,765 i,799 1,252
235,762 4-434 44 668
81,928
7,276 34 19 39
Religions
Chinese 1
Mahom- medan
Hindu
Chris- tian
Straits Setts, proper Labuan .... Christmas I. Cores Is
359,760
261,154 4,43 46 669
52,579
24474 116
32 50
1 Other than Mahommedan and Christian.
Chinese immigrants in 1919 numbered 70,912 21.4% more than in 1918, and 73-6% less than in the “record” year, 1911. Adult males were 62-4% and females 19-5%. 101,433 immigrants arrived at Penang from southern India, and 46,767 Indians quitted the colony. There were 2,439 labourers from Netherlands India.
The Chinese community was on the whole prosperous during the World War; the increased cost of living and the high rate of exchange with China bore hardly upon the poorer classes, but the increase of wages in great measure counterbalanced these disadvantages. The Chinese freely supported patriotic and charitable funds, and after some demur, before its purpose was fully understood, recognized without further difficulty the war-tax ordinance of 1917. The war, however, produced its problems for the community. It was neces- sary to establish a censorship of Chinese newspapers, and in June 1919 an anti-Japanese boycott resulted in rioting in Singapore and Penang, while a Chinese patriotic league and an anarchical body, the so-called Truth Society, gave some trouble.
Finance. Revenue in 1911 amounted to $11,409,220, in 1919 to $34,108,465; expenditure in 1911 to $9,085,389, in 1919 to $34,901,- 2 33 (Si =2S. 4d.). A noteworthy financial measure was the introduc- tion of an income tax, which, in spite of controversy, raised 400,- ooo sterling in 1917 without friction.
The colony had at the end of 1919 a debt of 6,913,352 sterling in respect of the loan raised by the issue of 3^% Straits Settlements inscribed stock, 1907. About four-fifths of this loan was expended on account of the Singapore Harbour Board, and the rest on account of the Penang Harbour Board, the municipal commissioners of Singapore and Penang, and on Government harbour works, and interest charges are borne by these bodies.
Among Government monopolies that of opium is by far the most productive; the sales of chandu in the colony in 1919 yielded $17,511,229, in addition to which there were sales to the Federated and Non-Federated Malay States and Brunei. But prices were raised and other measures were taken in that year with a view to the gradual reduction of the amount of opium consumed.
Economic conditions: Agriculture, etc. In many respects the colony actually benefited from the World War: there was, for instance, an increase in the gross value of trade from 63,600,000 in 1914 to 148,200,000 sterling in 1917. The more serious economic problems were not all results of the war. For example, it was about 1909-10 that a remarkable development of agricultural activity set in, especially in Malacca and Province Wellesley. This took the direction mainly of rubber planting, which led to the neglect of fruit cultivation and other forms of native agriculture; and this tendency has persisted. It has been asserted, indeed, that the rubber industry has been overexploited here: the people ceased in great measure to cultivate their own food crops and raise their own live stock, and became dependent on imported food stuffs. In 1917 rice was imported from Rangoon, Siam, and French Indo-China; wheat flour from Australia and India; cold storage foodstuffs from Australia, and other foodstuffs from China. Difficulties connected with shortage of supplies and shipping made it necessary to set up food control in 1917. An enquiry was instituted into measures for increasing home produce of rice and other foods, and " cultivation clauses " were inserted into leases of newly alienated lands. In 1918 the United States restricted imports of rubber, with a consequent reaction upon the Straits Settlements industry. This could not, however, im- mediately affect food cultivations, and in that year shortage in India, floods in Siam, and the demand for imported rice in Java and
- ↑ These figures indicate the volume and page number of the previous article.
