THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Photo from J. H. Bruins TWAKOWS ON SINGAPORE RIVER Vol. V. FEBRUARY, 1928 No. 2 Dependable Service In Dodge Brothers Four, brilliant performance, custom beauty, big-car comfort are the outward expression of inward fineness. No Dodge Brothers Four in thirteen years of quality-building has been built so well. Traditional Dodge standards of inspection and workmanship have been more than adhered to — they have been advanced to even higher levels. Performance, comfort and style are not, therefore, the fleeting attributes of newness. They are deep-rooted in structural quality — the surest guarantee of low-cost, dependable service over a long period of time. □ □□BE- BRDTHER5, INC. DETROIT, U. 5. A. □□DEE- BROTHERS MOTOR CARS VOL. V, No. 2 WASHINGTON, D. C. FEBRUARY, 1928 Seductive Singapore By JOHN H. BRUINS, Vice Consul, Singapore AT THE mention of Singapore, imaginations most exotic of imaginations can be satisfied in turn automatically to “Singapore Joe,” the this “Corner of Asia.” crimson lights, and the mysterious shadows Singapore is also seductive in other ways. Its of the “crossroads of the East.” Singapore is in well-paved streets and fine residences would at least one way satisfying. A visit to it de¬ credit any American city. Its tramways are now stroys none of the favorite children of one’s trackless. Its new public buildings are models, imagination. Modern Singapore is a scurrying, and its cathedral is one of the architectural smooth-running, rubber-tired commercial center. beauties of Asia. At the same time the slow-moving ox-carts and In historical interest Singapore claims no the shuffling, shoeless, sockless and even shirtless antiquity, having been founded in 1819. How¬ populace leave little to be imagined of the former ever, the past century has been one of rapid de¬ days. Old and new are blended in the humid, velopment and of interesting events. The first equatorial sunshine in which Singapore steams American Consul was Mr. J. Balestier, who came and sizzles. from Boston. He was assigned to Rhio, Bintang All of the enchantment which can be lent by (about 40 miles distant from Singapore) “and distance is here. The tourist inquiring as to to such other ports as are nearer thereto than to which is the shortest way around the earth to the residence of any other Consul of the United New York will be informed, in the most casual States.” He lived on his own sugar plantation manner, that it is “about the same either way.” on Singapore Island, but had an office at Rhio Nor is Singapore surpassed by New York in the until 1837. In November, 1836, he was recog¬ variety of its people. The nations of the earth nized as Consul at Singapore by the Court of walk its streets or ride in its rickshaws. In fact, Directors of the East India Company in London. Singapore claims superiority over New York in He served 14 years. One of Singapore’s streets variety now that the North American Indian has now bears his name. Since Mr. Balestier’s day also come. there have been 33 principal officers. One of Singapore’s momentary twilight gives way to a them, Mr. A. J. Studer, served from 1871 to 1888, million twinkling lights in its harbor. Noiseless a remarkable record at a post where the heat is sampans disappear under shadowy bridges. continuous. Aside from these two long incum¬ Pagoda-hatted boatmen stow away their long bencies, the average length of service has been sweeps for the night. Rickshaw coolies disap¬ about 1 year and 10 months. The office was made pear into dimly lit smoking dens. Slanting eyes a Consulate General in 1893. peer out from behind half-closed doors. Strains In the days of the clipper ships Singapore saw of both oriental and occidental music are heard. a good deal of the American merchant marine. The tropic moon unfolds a lunar rainbow. The In 1860 the American sailing vessel Africa, carry- 37 ing coal from Cardiff to China foundered off the Thereupon a group of Filipinos residing in Sumatra coast. The captain and crew, to save Singapore waited upon Mr. Pratt and presented their lives, took to boats and were finally rescued him with an address, to which he replied. Press by a Dutch bark. Shortly after it was aban¬ representatives were present, and consequently doned the Africa was plundered and set on fire this matter also became the subject of an ex¬ by Malay pirates. change of notes between the British Embassy in In 1878 the Mabel Clark, of New York, was Washington and the State Department. When wrecked near Singapore. The captain, with his Admiral Dewey returned to America from the wife and daughter and some of the crew, spent Philippines, he spent a few days in Singapore, and 34 consecutive hours in the rigging without food was received with all honors by the Governor of or water before being rescued by whale boats. the Straits Settlements and other local officials. Consul General Spencer Pratt had some inter¬ Of late years Singapore has become a first- esting experiences at the time of the Spanish- class seducer of dollars from American pockets. American War. A few days before Admiral Rubber used to come from the Amazon, but, as Dewey left Hongkong for Manila, the Filipino is well known, the last 10 years have witnessed general, Emilio Aguinaldo, came to Singapore a remarkable change in the plantation rubber of for a conference with Mr. Pratt. Owing to the the East. In recent years rubber has been by far prestige which Mr. Pratt believed Aguinaldo en¬ our leading import item. Last year over 60 per¬ joyed in the Philippines, he arranged for Agui¬ cent of it came from the Malay Peninsula, and naldo to proceed to Hongkong to discuss possible most of the rest came from the surrounding cooperation with Admiral Dewey. islands. A large share of our tin also comes from Aguinaldo went to Hongkong, but got there Singapore. Huge tin dredges and countless too late to see the admiral, who had left for Chinamen toil night and day to meet the demands Manila with his squadron. A Singapore paper of the tin-can tourist. Every tire blowout and learned of this interview and published an ar¬ every opened tin can mean more business for ticle about it. This caused the British Embassy Singapore. Exports to the United States in 1926 in Washington to take the matter up with the amounted to $340,000,000. This is no mean dollar State Department, suggesting that the neutrality seducing from a country which prides itself on of the British Empire had been violated by Mr. supplying its own needs. Pratt. In shipping Singapore easily ranks among the Soon after Dewey’s victory at Manila, Agui¬ “first 10” ports. The entrances and clearances naldo began hostilities against the Spaniards in of vessels of 50 tons and over number more than the vicinity of the city and had a few successes. 1,000 per week, including a good sprinkling of SINGAPORE WATERFRONT Photo from J. H. Bruins The large structure is the Union Building in •which is the American Consulate General 38 ships flying the stars and stripes. The harbor THE SIREN as seen from the balcony of the Consulate Gen¬ eral presents a moving, dignified panorama. Its Who that hath watched the trade-cloud’s fleecy flight, argosies nose away to Yokohama, Cape Town, Melbourne, Antwerp, New York. Others take Or seen the coco’s drooping fronds against the their places. Next to Panama and Suez it is the moon, world’s busiest crossroads. Or hath heard the mystic music of the tropic So it is that Singapore, almost against its will, night; has been awakened. “Tid apa,” the Malay for But shall return—or late—or soon ? ennui or manana, has given away to “jalan,” Who that hath seen the hurling comber break in which is “move, go ahead, travel.” Malayan foam, slowness, Chinese imperturbability, and equatorial heat are combined here in generous quantities. Against a blazing strand beneath the pitiless noon, Nevertheless, Singapore has moved ahead to an Or heard the trade-winds whisp’ring to the important position as a world production and list’ning palms ; trade center. New and prosperous days have But shall return—or late—or soon? come. Yet the old charm remains; the “tid apa” lure of the Orient; the sagas of the South Seas Who that hath heard the night-bird’s strident cry, which Conrad told the world. Globe shoppers, Or the mullet’s lazy splash upon the still lagoon, business men and Consuls come, curse the cli¬ Or watched the sacred smoke from hidden altars mate, and soon go. But Singapore’s seductive¬ rise; ness reaches far and summons many back to its But shall return—or late—or soon? days of effort and to its nights of enchantment. PHF, THE ESPLANADE, SINGAPORE Photo from J. H. Bruins 39 That all, even in the North, were not enthusi¬ ELEAZER ALLBEE astic supporters of Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, during the Civil War, is evidenced Was born in by an epitaph discovered in the Rose Cemetery, Rockingham, Vt. Stanstead County, Quebec, by Walter J. Linthi- June 19, 1785 cum, Vice Consul at Sherbrooke. The tombstone died in Stanstead, C. E., reads: Aug. 28., 1864 He went into volentary banishment from his beloved Native Country duren the reign of terror in the third year of the misrule of Abraham the first. (The spelling has been faithfully reproduced.) Consul Algar E. Carleton writes that in the ancient church of St.