A
Cuclosure No 1
in Colonel Crossman's letter to J.G. 7. N 53 dated 24 November 1891
Situation.
Passing Tralie.
Memorandum with reference to provid- ing for the security of the Naval Establishment and Coaling Station of Singapore.
Preliminary Observations. Singapore is an island, in shape something like the Isle of Wight, 25 miles long and 14 miles in maximum width, situated at the southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula, where the Straits of Malacca debouch into the China Sea, and is separated from the mainland by a strait, averag- The ing three quarters of a mile in width. Straits of Malacea form oue of the main ocean routes of the world. By this route passes the whole of the trade of the United Kingdom with China, the total of which, including Exporis and Imports, amounted, for the year 1871, to upwards of £24,000,000, as well as a trade of the value of many millions sterling between India and
China.
The opium trade with China is one of the From the principal sources of Indian revenue. cultivation and sale of opium, the Indian Go- vernment derives no less than £6,000,000 per annuw, the gross receipts being £8,000,000, or nearly 4th of the total revenue of India. Any stoppage of the trade through these Straits would thus be most disastrous to the finances and commerce of India, and of serious disadvan- tage to the commerce of the United Kingdom. Importance of Singa-
pore.
Singapore is the chief town and seaport in the Straits, and commands the whole of this large passing traffic. Owing to its advantageous position, its excellent roadstead, its fine natural harbour, (in which are great facilities for the con- struction of docks and wharves), and to other causes, Singapore has become a commercial centre of the highest importance for the eastern trade. It is the entrepôt in which
brought together and exchanged the products "and manufactures of the Western world, of India, Cochin-Chim, Siam, the Malayau Pen- insula, and of the whole wide region of the Eastern Archipelago from its western limits "in Sumatra to the meridian of New Guinea
and the Philippines.”
4
* McCullock's Commercial Dictionary, "Singapore,
are
346
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