POSTMORTEM ON MALAYA

The author of Thailand does an important book for background and reference in this appraisal of Malaya. A serious study of this country of many peoples, many administrations, whose fundamental weakness lay in its lack of homogeneity. Inhabitants, geography, crops, tin and rubber, (both over-produced and over- capitalized, bringing the country alternately prosperity and poverty); the wartime trade book, militarization and the passive defense measures of this valuable region. Proof here of English flexibility and apathy, of the anachronistic crown colony system, of arbitrary administration. For students of regional background, primarily.