Malaya: Land Of Tin And Rubber (1957)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] at the Southeastern tip of Asia a narrow strip of land separates the Indian Ocean from the Pacific this is the melee Peninsula at Singapore some of the world's busiest shipping lanes cross here also lie Rich tin mines and rubber plantations two raw materials of greatest importance in War and Peace the southern tip of the melee Peninsula lies only 80 mil from the equator in this equatorial Zone the climate is intensely warm and humid with very little seasonal change and an almost daily rainfall nearly 80% of the land area is covered with a moist dense and impenetrable tropical rainforest malaya's 8 million people therefore live on only 20% of the land area though much of this tropical forest is a barrier to transportation some excellent Ro roads run north and south through the country only a few steps from the paved Highway the tropical forest becomes so dense that even the brilliant equatorial Sun cannot easily penetrate it today some of this Forest has been cleared and put to commercial use less than a 100 years ago rubber trees were brought to Malaya from Brazil in this short period of time Malaya has become one of the world's leading producers of rubber many rubber Estates are owned by English firms because until recently Mala was governed by England these are taml women from Southern India since each of the thousands of trees must be tended daily rubber Estates imported workers from neighboring overpopulated countries such as India each morning the women receive their instructions from the manager who is also Indian armed with buckets they set out to their assigned sections of the forest of rubber trees often they must walk long distances to reach that part of the estate in which they will work the rubber Tapper carefully scrapes the bark of each tree it takes considerable skill to tap a rubber tree if cut too deeply the tree could be damaged and its yield reduced by removing a thin slice of bark the rubber sap or latex as it is called is made to flow along the downward cut from the thick white liquid latex crude rubber will be made out of each cut in the bark the tree will drip for several hours into the collecting cup the latex from many trees is collected shortly after noon each day it takes strength to carry this thick and heavy liquid for a mile or more in the afternoon tappers from all sides begin to return to collecting stations which are scattered throughout the estate at the collecting shed the pales are weighed in front of an inspector he takes a sample of latex from each paale to test it for Purity to make sure that the tappers have not diluted the sap when the measuring instrument floats this high in the liquid the inspector knows that the latex is pure weights are recorded and each worker is paid according to the amount of latex she has delivered many of these women are children and grandchildren of rubber workers who immigrated from India when the rubber boom started on some Estates the latex is treated chemically and turned into sheets of crude rubber this large estate prefers to ship its latex by rail to a processing plant further south the manager of a rubber estate is responsible for securing the highest possible yield from his trees he has been trained to recognize when a tree is old enough to be tapped and when too old to be worth tapping he protects the trees from disease and inspects the planting of new Groves for this the company provides him with a good house and a good income he speaks Indian as well as English and is expected to know some melee and Chinese while rubber is malaya's most important export it also has some of the world's best tin mines whenever he finds some free time from duties on the rubber estate the manager drives over to the nearby Tin Mine to visit his brother who directs the operations here this large Tin Mine is owned by an international corporation and administered by this young Indian who was trained in England this is known as an opencast Tin Mine because the ore is dug from the surface of the ground through the many years that the mine has been producing the shovels have dug deeper and deeper digging themselves into this enormous pit Modern Machinery imported usually from Great Britain and the most up-to-date mining methods are used in Malaya this conveyor carries the or bearing Earth out of the pit it runs a distance of nearly 2 miles the miners here work in 4-Hour shifts because of the extreme heat three shifts load ore 12 hours a day thousands of tons can be transported daily by this efficient method of mining but the giant shovels are capable of digging more Earth than the conveyor can carry away and so a small mining railroad carries even more of the tin bearing Earth out of the mine the mining cars are pulled up the Steep incline by means of a chain which is attached to a winch at the other end at the top of the hill is the processing station which separates the metallic tin ore from clay Earth and other impurities in these huge beaters water is mixed with the Earth the metallic tin ore is much heavier than the impurities and it won't dissolve in water therefore the tin oree sinks to the bottom of the beater while the other impurities are washed away this muddy water will be used again and is returned to the reservoir through these long sloes great quantities of water are required in the processing of tinor and it is provided by mala's heavy rainfall again and again the Earth is mixed with water each step removes more and more impurities gradually the water becomes cleaner as only the metallic grains of pure tin ore remain there are two large smelters in Malaya at the smelter the oree is further refined ships carry the heavy sacks filled with ore from the mines up country to the docks of the smelter on the island of PA Bron tinor is heavy each bag weighs over a 100 lb The Ore is extremely valuable since tons of Earth must be processed to fill just one sack in the smelter the tin ore is made Pure or refined by a process of melting after several days the furnace is opened or tapped the molten tin runs out into a bed of sand bows which have been prepared to receive it and where the metal will harden the resulting ingots are over 99% pure tin but tin is never used in pure form it is mixed with other metals by many different processes and is invaluable in the manufacturer of Alloys which the industrial world needs all the way from bronze bearings for ships and trains to the Coating in the familiar Tin Can Malaya exports a third of the world's supply of tin the rest coming mainly from South America the growing demand for this precious metal makes makes Malaya a strategically important Nation the ships which receive the tin ingots here at the Port of Singapore will carry them to Mills and factories in Europe and America the island of Singapore is connected by a Causeway with the melee Peninsula the island is situated on the narrow Straits of Mala between the Indian and the Pacific Oceans for ships traveling between the two oceans Singapore is a regular stop because of its strategic position on this straight ships of many flags always fill the harbor of Singapore coming from Europe and America ships refuel here and bring products from their native countries to this thriving commercial City a broad Canal carries small boats Into the Heart of the City where they are loaded and unload [Music] loaded the tall modern buildings towering above the river reflect the prosperity which International Commerce has brought to the island along the modern boulevards on the waterfront large Office Buildings house the banks and financial firms that make Singapore the financial Hub of Southeast Asia here many English American Dutch and German people deal not only in banking but in rubber tin and shipping long association with England and other nations gives Singapore a modern Cosmopolitan look English and Chinese are the main languages spoken and the signs are in both languages Chinese firms control much of the large business and trade and the population of the island is over half Chinese Indians account for a large segment the rest of the population is made up of melees who work mainly as Farmers cultivating vegetable gardens fishing or tending tiny rice patties this is SEO Lane one of the market streets in the Chinese sector the merchants of seol Lane live and trade in the time honored fashion of the small Chinese businessman selling just enough fish each day to make sufficient profit to live and just enough vegetables to buy rice fish vegetables and rice form the diet of the Chinese even the fruit market is international these oranges come from California combining the different peoples who live in the Federation of Malaya and on the island of Singapore into a unified ho is one of the problems to be faced by this new nation but with the wealth of the rubber forests tin mines and shipping this problem may be overcome and Malaya and Singapore may not only continue to progress as they have in the past but become increasingly important important in the modern world