" A plain and sober formula enabled Sir Stamford Raffles
in 1819 to transform the desolate island of Singapore into a world market- place almost overnight. Some twenty years later at Hongkong, the formula worked no less magically. Its main ingredients were free- dom of trade, stability of government, and efficiency of administra- tion, to which were added the natural advantages of geographical position and sheltered anchorage." That is a very good beginning to a Blue Book, and it is a very good Blue Book that so begins. It is called " British Dependencies in the Far East 1945-1949," and it tells how Malaya, Singapore, the Borneo dependencies, and Hong-
• kong have fared through the years of reconstruction and recovery. It is intensely interesting and highly important. It costs as. Readers of the Spectator who are concerned for the welfare of the still dependent members of the Commonwealth will be well-advised to make that small investment. This paragraph is for their benefit, not
Previous page
