The 1920s and 1930s constituted the golden age for these expatriates. After that the Japanese invasion, followed by the Communist insurgency, turned life into a nightmare. Many Britons were released from jail in 1945 only to find themselves on isolated plantations in siege conditions, their houses surrounded by barbed wire and floodlights, their phone lines cut and an ambush threatening round every muddy corner. During the two months Graham Greene was in Malaya at the end of 1950 (a visit not mentioned in this book) there were 6,000 terrorist incidents -- children killed, trains blown up, the throats cut of rubber planters and their Malay employees alike.
Margaret Shennan has been long connected with what is now Malaysia. She was born in Kuching and brought up near Penang. Her overall attitude is that these expatriates were no better and no worse than their peers back home.
There was much to praise in their influence, though also much to mock in their lifestyle.
British conceptions of justice were neither superior not inferior to the local ones, she argues. The British brought principles of 貨air play,?whereas the traditional Malay rulers felt it looked better to punish the wrong man than to leave a crime unsolved. On the other hand the spread of
Western habits encouraged the decay of a traditional way of life that had bestowed much contentment.
Such contrasts could be seen in the details of everyday life. The British ate with knives and forks, whereas the Malays would use their hands. When challenged on the issue of hygiene, the Malays would reply that their fingers hadn't been in anyone else's mouth, and moreover could never be stolen. Again, whereas the foreigners often described the locals as 趺azy,?many Malays considered it better to retain their independence rather than fill their pockets with cash which they had little use for.
This book is engaging, fascinating to read, and probably in essence fair and just. Today Malaysia boasts the Petronas Towers, currently the second and third highest buildings in the world, and the ethos of English ladies taking tea on the verandah while manic birds shriek in the nearby forest seems almost as remote as ancient Byzantium.
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