but those who have lived as long as I have amongst the Chinese will testify to their value if they are treated properly. One advantage with this labour is that you can make contracts, and payment by results, by which means you can get the maximum amount of labour at the minimum of expense. Borneo is but a few days' steam from China and Singapore, where, for a moderate wage, an unlimited amount of this labour can be obtained. Anyone who has studied the map will, I think, recognise that, commercially and strategically, North Borneo occupies a position of great importance. Lying on the high road between China and Australia, we must in time get a large population there. The climate I can speak well of. I have lived there many months at different times of the year. The Government of the country is based, as Sir Walter has told us, on the Indian penal code, and the administration seems to meet the wishes of the natives and the Chinese, and the other settlers. A force of 180 police has hitherto been sufficient to keep order with comparative case. As to the charter, some friends of the enterprise seen to believe that the enormous powers we hold were given by Her Majesty the Queen. It is not so at all. All our powers were derived entirely from the Sultans of Brunei and Sulo, and what the British Government did was simply to incorporate us by Royal charter, thus recognising our powers, which recognition is to us, of course, of vital importance. I hope I have said enough to interest you in our scheme, and to show that North Borneo has a considerable future before it."
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