Directory_and_Chronicle_1940 — Page 1376

SINGAPORE

The island of Singapore, situated in lat. 1 deg. 17 min. N. and long. 103 deg. 51 min. E., is 26 miles long by 14 wide, containing an area of 206, or, with the adjacent islands, 220 square miles, and is separated from the territory of Johore, which occupies the Southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula, by a narrow strait about three-quarters of a mile wide acros which a causeway for road and rail traffic was completed in 1923. Singapor was originally taken possession of in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles, and was formally ceded to the British Government by the Sultan of Johore in 1824 In that year it became an appanage of the Indian Government, and remained so until 1867, when it was placed under the Colonial Office in conjunction with Penang and Malacca. The island is almost entirely level, the highest hill in the island, Bukit Timah, about eight miles from the town, rising t a height of only 581 feet. The roads are well kept and thanks to the luxuriance of tropical vegetation, abound in shade.

The town of Singapore is situated on the southern shore of the Islan and is the seat of Government of the Straits Settlements, containing the residence of the Governor of the Straits Settlements and High Commissione: for the Malay States. The town proper extends for about four miles along the south-eastern shore of the island spreading inland for a distance of about a mile, though the majority of the residences of Europeans lie further back, within a circle with a radius of four to five miles from the heart of the town. The town streets are wide and well metalled,

There are clubs catering for all classes of people and all forms of sport art and recreation. There are several good hotels, among them the Raffles, the Adelphi and the Sea View.

The principal show places in Singapore are the Airport, the Botanical Gardens at Tanglin, the MacRitchie and Pierce Reservoirs in Thomson Road the Gap Road, the Raffles Library and Museum, the pineapple factories, and the various Chinese and Indian temples.

A bronze statue of Sir Stamford Raffles stands in front of the Town Hall, to which position it was removed on the occasion of the Singapore Centenary on 6th February, 1919. A dignified and imposing Cenotaph has been erected on the esplanade to commemorate men from the Settlement who fell in the Great War. This memorial was unveiled by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales on the 'occasion of his visit in 1922. A new Supreme Court Building was opened in August, 1939, adjoining the Municipal Building.

The various cloth-merchants and jewellers shops chiefly centred along High Street and South Bridge Road are a never-failing source of attraction to visitors and residents alike.

The English daily press is represented by the Straits Times, Singapore Free Press, Morning Tribune and Malaya Tribune. There are severa Chinese, and also Japanese, Indian and Malay papers. The Government Gazette is published weekly.

Singapore is a free port, there being no Customs Duties, but Excise Duties are levied on alcoholic liquors, opium, tobacco and petroleum. The Harbour is practically landlocked by islands, and the rise and fall of or dinary spring tides is 9 feet. Although the majority of ocean-going steamers are berthed at the Harbour Board's wharves, many smaller vessels discharge and load in the Inner and Outer Harbour, the Inner Harbour being protected from the north-east monsoon by a mole of granite rubble approximately a mile long. The Singapore Harbour Board constituted under the Ports Or