Letters to the Editor
Living Among Asians David Morris Committal Proceedings 'Prima Facie' The Church of England and Divorce
Rev. Dr. Paul A. Welsby
Middle East Mythology Stafford Campbell The Fuss about 'Lotits' Dr. A. E. Moore, Herbert van Thai, 'Chelsea Artist' Spanning the Great Divide Professor Antony Flew Derriere-garde T. E. Bean In Prison C. A. Scares
LIVING AMONG ASIANS
SIR,—About two years ago Mr. Edinger opened up a prolific vein of correspondence dealing with the habits of the British in Singapore and in Malaya.
His opinion, which none, I think, refuted, was that the British should assimilate themselves into the lives of the people, and that newcomers especially should be given a freer hand to do so.
This made good reading, much of which would have delighted Clive, Rhodes, Raffles and other defunct pioneers. But after spending a year assimilat- ing as hard as I can and rarely meeting Europeans,
I am wondering whether he was right or whether he was fifty years too late.
Asians, of course, are pleased when a foreigner takes the trouble to try to live among them, but their problems and their efforts to cope with them are formidable to those accustomed to legislated ways and means. Doubtless a new world is opened up, a Spartan world of courage, humour and versatility wherein original sin is unsought; but Europeans and Westernised Asians do not belong in it. They dis- qualify themselves because of their ostentation and inflexibility.
Besides, Edinger completed his tour and now earns
his living elsewhere. It takes five years before one can even apply for Federation or Singapore citizen- ship, and there are so many cases of British ex- officers with Asian wives who are at their wits' end to find a living, or even to get a permit to live here. Yet these should be the very people to be encouraged to settle and to foster good will between East and West. Instead, they are haunted by the very real fear .of their wives and children enduring the cold and contumely of Notting Hill for the rest of their lives.
The bitter parodox is the fact that in Siam there
is little difficulty in a British subject finding a job as well as a wife, and really living in the country. It is where paternal British influence is at its strongest that obstacles bedevil the would-be assimilator, and where he is stuck until his permit expires and he is ordered out, barred from Australia and New Zealand, a misfit in England and unwanted in the land he has learnt to serve and to love.—Yours faithfully,
c/o The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Orchard Road. Singapore
Previous page
