A MINIATURE ^ encyclopedia of infor¬ mation in regard to Malaysia. Intended for pastors, Cen¬ tenary workers and others who have use for a compact reference work from which may be quickly obtained sig¬ nificant facts for incorporation into missionary addresses. FILE THIS WHERE YOU CAN FIND IT MALAYSIA Talking Points LOCATION AND SIZE Malaysia welcomes the immigrant of the East¬ ern world. Although she cannot boast of an ancient civilization or a homogeneous people, with her amazing riches of land and sea she is a new world power coming into being. Q The Malay Peninsula in southeastern Asia together with the most wonderful throw of islands in the world, stretching to the south and east from its tip, make up Malaysia. There are over three and one-half times as many people in Java as in the state of New York, which has about the same area, yet Java could support many millions more. RESOURCES S S Malaysia could maintain ten times its present population. !■) MacMillan Brown, in a recent book on the Dutch East Indies, claims that Malaysia could furnish a meal ticket for the entire world. More than one-half the world’s supply of tin comes from the Malay peninsula. The Peninsula is also the leading country in the production of cultivated rubber. 0 When cold storage killed the spice trade of the East Indies, two missionaries taught the natives to plant cocoanuts and sell the dried meat, so that copra supplanted spice as an important article of export. _ 0 The wealth of Malaysia attracts about 500,0x20 immigrants every year from southern China and southern India. 0 0 , PEOPLES AND COMMERCE The Chinese become the merchants, and much of the business of the archipelago is in their hands. The Indians are interested chiefly in agriculture. ^ A Chinese boy apprenticed to a photographer in a Malayasian town watched the work of his indolent master, and then one day when an Englishman came during the proprietor’s absence, he volunteered to develop the pictures himself. He did—^and kept the money. Other chances soon gave him the capital for a business of his own, and he opened a small shop across the street. The instance is typical of the way the Chinese are getting ahead of the lazy Malay. 0 The true Malay has some civilization but little ambition. „ 0 The “wild man of Borneo” still exists in the form of the savage Dyak, who depends upon 3 throwing stones into the water, or killing young pigs to protect him from evil spirits. m "I heie are as many languages spoken among the one hundred different peoples of the Malay race as there are in Europe. Q Sixty-nine languages and dialects are employed in Singapore alone. □ I his meeting place of the East and West —- Singapore — is the strategic point in Malaysia. Q It is probably the most paradoxical, picturesque and cosmopolitan community in the world. Q More Chinese live here than in any other city in the world outside of China. Q Singapore is the third port of the Orient, and even before the war surpassed Liverpool’s yearly shipping record by 1,060,000 tons. 0 European and allied races own or control the big business of the city. 0 Singapore is sometimes called the wickedest city in the world. It is an open port — nothing is dutiable except opium and spirits — and it is an open city with many saloons, opium joints and evil resorts. 4 SANITATION i Sanitation is unknown in large areas of * Malaysia, and medical facilities are inadequate. • 0 } T A large percentage of the Javanese are victims J of disease — tuberculosis, syphilis, hookworm and eye trouble are most common. ! 0 ^ Often Dutch doctors will not touch an operative i case for less than one month’s salary of the f patient. g ) i d'he Methodists have a hospital in Java — the I only one in Malaysia — and a doctor in West j Borneo. _ > 0 I The Dutch Government has offered to pay 1 three-fourths of the cost of building hospitals and ■ to provide for their qpkeep if the Methodist \ mission will furnish the doctors and nurses. I 0 0 ( EDUCATION 1 Surpassing the need for hospitals is that for 1 schools. ^ A circle around Singapore with a radius of 6oo miles would take in a population of over 40,000,- 000 people, yet in that area there is no school of college grade. q Probably about five per cent of the native Malay men can read and write, not more than one per cent of the women. 5 Two-thirds of all the scholars in the schools are Chinese. 0 The usual type of Malay school is a hoax. It is conducted by a Moslem who managed to learn the Arabic alphabet and to recite, without understanding, parts of the Koran. This entitled him to visit Mecca, ffpm whence he returns a sacred personage in the eyes of the ignorant Malays. He profits by this superstition and thereafter does nothing but extract large fees from the natives for hisiso-called schooling. 0 The most popular grammar of the Malay lang.uage, and the only complete English-Malay dictionary, was written by Dr. W. G. Shella- bear, for twenty-five years a missionary in Malay¬ sia and probably the foremost Malay scholar. 0 The Anglo-Chinese School, founded by Bishop W. F. Oldham when fcfe Went as a pioneer Metho¬ dist missionary to Singapore, is now the largest educational institution in the Far Fast, outside of Japan. Now even the Dyaks are asking for schools, and the Government has agreed to erect buildings if the Missions will supply native teachers. '0 The same offer, however, has been made to the Arabs, who will se.ze the opportunity to extend Mohammedanism, if Christians do not respond first. 6 RELIGION It is estimated that there are 50,ooo,ocx» Mohammedans in the archipelago, practically all native Malays. 0 With a population of 306,000 Singapore—the radiating center of Malaysia—has only three Methodist churches. Q The Methodists are the only American mission¬ aries in Malaysia. Q The migratory character of the population is responsible for the fact that after thirty-one years the Church showed a membership of only 2,897. A congregation may have a membership of fifty one year and only two the next. Q Probably not more than one-fourth of the expenses of the Malaysia Mission has been sup¬ plied by the home treasury, for th^i|stitutions are practically self-supporting. IJ^^Hethodist Mission is now raising on the field ^^^■U.ars for every one dollar it receives from 7 Published by ^TKe Centenary Conrmission of tKe Board of Foreign Missions Methodist Episcopal Church 150 Fifth Avenue New York 1919