The Singapore Elections
Good news from Malaya has been scarce for a long time, and this makes all the more welcome this week's reports about the elections in Singapore. The authorities had some reason tc view with anxiety an occasion on which a community se bedevilled with racial and religious—to say nothing of political— differences faced the duty of electing nine members to represent it on the colony's,Legislative Council. In, the event everything went off in an orderly and amicable manner, and the special precautions taken by the police proved needless. Roughly half the electorate voted, so that the tranquillity which marked the proceedings cannot be attributed to apathy. The candidates returned comprised three Chinese, three Indians, one European, one Eurasian and one Ceylonese ; the European defeated a Chinese in a constituency where the latter's fellow-countrymen predominate. The Progressive Party, with six seats, now holds a clear majority on the Council. It is committed to an ambitious policy in the field of welfare, in the implementation of which it may be hampered by unkind economic circumstances ; but its healthily impartial attitude towards communal issues is the soundest possible basis on which to tackle the complex problems of a complex community. The people of Singapore have given a remarkable demonstration of how, even under the most un- promising conditions, the British democratic tradition can be made a practical reality in Asia.
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