: Across the Equator: A Holiday Trip in Java by Reid Thomas H - Java (Indonesia) Description and travel; Java (Indonesia) History

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and cleanliness upon the Asiatic residents. The objectionable hanging Chinese signboards are noticeably absent in Batavia, as in all other towns throughout Java, and something has been done to make less clamant the odoriferous articles of Chinese commerce. The Dutch have proved that the Chinese are amenable to European notions if only firmness is shown by those in authority.

Then there is the residential town, Weltevreden with its broad tree-lined avenues and palatial pavilion hotels and private villa establishments.

In style, the European houses are quite unlike those erected by the Spaniards in the Philippine Islands, or the British in the Malay Peninsula. They are not raised to any great height from the ground. Three or four wide low steps lead on to a capacious white marble verandah, the lofty roof of which is supported by shapely pillars with Grecian cornices. Upon the polished surface of the ample hall are strewn rugs of beautiful design or the fancy straw matting of the East. Bed-rooms open on either side from this hall, and at the back, opening out upon a spacious court-yard or garden filled with gaily coloured flowers or stately palms, is another wide verandah where meals are served. The bath-rooms, kitchen, stables, store-rooms and servants' quarters lie beyond the garden. There is everywhere a generous appreciation of space, and doubtless the good health enjoyed by the Dutch ladies and their families so markedly in contrast to the British colonists on the other side of the Equator is largely due to the more comfortable homes in which they are settled. In Java, the bath-room is a special feature, and only those who have travelled much in tropical countries can appraise it at its true value. It is all in keeping with the thorough cleanliness of the Dutch people, a feature which impressed itself upon us wherever we travelled throughout the island. Detached from every house of any pretensions, there is a smaller pavilion. It usually stands in the grounds in front and nearer the roadway, and in former times was spoken of as "the guest house." Nowadays, either because the Hotels are more comfortable than in olden times or because the railway system has led to a style of life that calls for less hospitality for travellers, the guest house is more often let to bachelors, who find it easier and cheaper to maintain a small establishment of this sort than the bachelor messes or chummeries of Singapore and Penang.

Weltevreden may be compared with a gigantic park, and there are residences sufficiently imposing to please the lover of architectural beauty, even if there is no assertive Clock Tower to emphasise by contrast the hovels of Singapore's region of slums. The idea of keeping the various races to their Kampongs may be contrary to British ideas, but in Java it appears to work satisfactorily enough. It is only in recent years that certain British colonies have been allowed to set apart reservations for European residence, and it would be well if the Government of the Federated Malay States, before it is too late, introduced the Kampong system in laying out new towns throughout the Peninsula.

A motor-car ride through the residential quarter and round the suburbs of Batavia gives one a good idea of the extent of the town, and, incidentally, of the merging of East and West in the population. Former Dutch residents have left their impress in more respects than one, and one result is a half-caste population which takes a much more prominent part in the affairs of the island than is the case, so far as we are aware, in any British Colony. There are pretty forms and beautiful faces among this hybrid race, and we are not astonished that succeeding generations from the land of dykes and canals should form alliances that wed them for ever to the sunny soil of Java. East may be East and West may be West, but here at least the lie is given to Kipling's generalisation, false like most generalisations, as to the impossibility of their blending.

The visitor will find the Museums full of objects of interest. On Koningsplein, young Holland devotes itself to recreation, and evidence is given here and elsewhere throughout the suburbs of the widespread popularity of the English game of football. The Dutch do not follow the British Colonial custom of sending their children to Europe. Many are educated and kept under the home influence in Java, and a fine healthy race of boys and girls is being reared to play its part in the new Netherlands created by Dutch enterprise and perseverance. Great as is the Java of the present day, there is justification for believing that it has a greater future in store.

The British in Java

It is a constant matter of regret to British travellers who have visited Java that the island, once in our possession, should have been restored to Dutch rule.

It is not our purpose, however, to discuss the reasons for that restoration, contenting ourselves with the reflection that the capture of Java was merely part of the plan for breaking the power of Napoleon and destroying his dream of dominating the East. The alliance of European Powers having succeeded in encompassing the great Frenchman's downfall, there were doubtless good reasons at the time for reinstating the Dutch in an island where they had been established for two hundred years.

A perusal of the history of the British Expedition against Java brings into strong relief the annihilation of space and the improvements in marine travel during the past century.

It was on April 18, 1811, that the troopships carrying the first Division, commanded by Colonel Robert Rollo Gillespie, sailed from Madras Roads. On May 18, they anchored in Penang Harbour, and on June 1, at Malacca. Here they awaited the remainder of the flotilla, and were joined by Lord Minto, then Viceroy of India; Lieutenant-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty, Commander-in-Chief; and Commodore Broughton. While here, the British learned that Marshal Daendels, the Dutch Governor-General, had been recalled, and that General Janssens, with a large body of troops from France, had landed and taken over the command in Java.

Marshal Daendels had been the Governor-General when the Colony was taken over by the Crown of Holland from the Dutch East India Company. He has left the mark of his influence upon the Colony to this day, and many of the public works that remain as evidence of the pioneer days were due to his force of character and initiative. Some of his methods may not commend themselves to us in these more humane and enlightened days, any more than they were approved by his great English successor, Sir Stamford Raffles, such, for instance, as his construction of the post-road from Anjer Head to Banjoewangi, a distance of over 700 miles, at the cost of from twelve to twenty thousand lives; but it is not always easy to estimate at a distance of a hundred years the peculiar difficulties and conditions under which European Governors administered an oriental Colony. If, at times, he exceeded his instructions, as British Governors also had to do before they came under the thralldom of a Colonial Department at the end of a telegraph cable, we can forgive much in a man who accomplished so much.

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