MALAY: Continuing his letters home from his next stop, Harvey Phillips, touring the world on the British freighter S.S. City of Bedford, wrote to his mother in Bradford from Singapore, Malay. It was printed in The Era on May 11, 1926.

“We are leaving the day after tomorrow on a five-day trip up through the interior of the Malay Peninsula, and therefore this will probably be the last letter I can write you before Suez. As the ship is to be over a week in Singapore, as well as stop at Port Swettenham and Penang, we figured it would be a good idea if we took a trip up through “Tank” Road from Singapore to Penang, arriving in Kuala Lumpur the following morning early. Kuala Lumpur is the capital of the Federated Malay States, and said to be a most interesting place. We spent the second day sightseeing there, and the following morning took the train to Ipoh near where are some of the famous tin mines and rubber plantations.

As far as it goes, Singapore isn’t a bad place at all. It is even more expensive than Manila if such is possible. We have taken a car around most of the island, through rubber plantations and palm forests. The roads are fine, and since so much rubber is produced here roads can be cheaply built from some of the by-products.

Nearly everything in town has the name “Raffles” connected with it some way or other. He was the first governor of Singapore in 1820 and as a result we find Raffles Square, Raffles Hotel, Raffles Library, Raffles Museum, Raffles Road, Raffles, Raffles.”

More to come.