Sarawak and Singapore

Little Boy Brooke was no Little Boy Blue. Queen Victoria liked his story considerably better than any in Mother Goose.

A little more than 100 years ago Jamie Brooke of Coombe Grove, England sailed off to work for the East India Co. When his wealthy father died Jamie bought what he called a yacht, stocked it with arms and set off pirateering for Borneo. Since he ended up as the Rajah of Sarawak in Borneo and was knighted by Queen Victoria there is nothing shameful in the story of Little Boy Brooke except court evidence which convinced almost every one except his British judges that he had practiced ruthless extortion on the natives of Sarawak after obtaining it from the Sultan of Borneo by violence, trickery and threats. Even today the discreet British Statesman's Year Book is obliged to list opium, gambling and arrack (strong spirits) as leading sources of revenue of the House of Brooke in Sarawak. The present Rajah, hard, suave, Sir Charles Vyner Brooke (grandnephew of Little Boy Brooke) boasts in the British Who's Who that he has "led several expeditions into the far interior of the country to punish head hunters" and "understands the management of natives." Last week Rajah Brooke sailed over to the great British Singapore Naval Base just opposite his realm and horned in on an exciting Conference of Admirals.

The last Admirals' conference in British Eastern waters was 13 years ago. Host last week in Singapore harbor aboard his flagship cruiser Kent was a rare and racy Tipperary-blooded quarter decker, Admiral Sir Frederic Charles Dreyer. He was Flag Captain in the Battle of Jutland to Admiral Jellicoe of the Grand Fleet, today commands the China Station.

New Zealand, whose Navy consists principally of the cruisers Dunedin and Diomede "loaned free of charge by the Imperial Government," sent to the Conference her modest Rear-Admiral Watson.

From Sydney went Vice-Admiral Hyde of Australia which has bought and paid for such fine new war boats as the 10,000-ton cruisers Canbeera (Flagship) and Australia, possesses also the older and smaller cruisers Adelaide and Brisbane, the seaplane carrier Albatross and five destroyers.

As yet the Royal Indian Navy is a paper promise to His Majesty's nut-brown subjects, but from the potent Imperial East Indies Station went Vice-Admiral Dunbar-Nasmith who won his Victoria Cross by torpedoing and sinking from his submarine Ell precisely eleven Turkish ships.

So far as correspondents were concerned, the conference might as well have been held inside a clam. They found H.M.S. Kent berthed in the most in accessible corner of Singapore's harbor with British bluejackets stationed "to prevent strangers from approaching within 100 yards."

No stranger. His Highness the London-born white Rajah of Sarawak was received by the admirals aboard the Kent with royal honors. He obviously wanted to chat about what would happen should Japan try to seize the predominantly Dutch Island of Borneo which also contains the territories of British North Borneo and Sarawak. To Japanese the status of Sarawak might be hard to explain. They might consider it fair game since Sarawak is officially "an independent State," might not attach sufficient importance to the fact that Sarawak is also officially "under the protection of Great Britain." This tie is not weakened by the fact that Rajah Brooke's wife is a daughter of the late Viscount Esher, his daughter is the wife of British Shipping Tycoon Lord Inchcape and his brother and heir Major Bertram Brooke is wedded to the onetime Gladys Palmer (Huntley & Palmers biscuits) who enjoys the distinction among Mohammedans of possessing the tunic of The Prophet, values it at $1,750,000.*

After Rajah Brooke left H. M. S. Kent the admirals relaxed by attending a tea for the children of Singapore Sahibs at Government House, then resumed their huddle. Broadly they discussed the naval situation created in Pacific waters by the fact that the U. S. and Japan are adding to their fleets even faster than is Great Britain, with a major "naval face" in prospect when the London Naval Treaty expires next year.

On the highly local question of Borneo, directly opposite Singapore at a distance of 350 miles, it was impossible for a British or Dutch officer in active service to express himself publicly last week. What can be said was very well said at The Hague last month by Queen Wilhelmina's onetime Commander-in-Chief of the Netherlands East Indies (including Borneo) defense forces, Lieut-General Gerth van Wyk:

"Only the cooperation of Great Britain, the United States, France and The Netherlands will suffice to check the Japanese whose strategy is to fight their adversaries separately. In case of war between Japan and the United States alone I consider that the odds favor Japan to be the victor."

* Having been in succession a Protestant, a Christian Scientist, and a Roman Catholic, Mrs. Bertram Brooke went up in an airplane over the British channel to be received into the faith of Mohammed by a red-fezzed dignitary of the Western Islamic Association who shouted above the roar of propellers: "I give thee the name of Khair-ul-Nissa, Fairest of Women." (TIME, Feb. 29, 1932).

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