Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

X PREFACE
an investigation into the wild races is an essential
preparation towards a scientific study of the Malays
themselves. The authors hope that the material
they have collected will serve as a basis upon which
may be reared a more systematic and accurate study
of all the races of the Malay Peninsula. There is
great need of a thorough survey of the Peninsula as a
whole, from the point of view both of geographical
and ethnological science and of industrial and eco-
nomic development.
Such a work should be undertaken by the
Governments of the Straits Settlements and the
Federated Malay States, disposing as they do of
ample revenues which they have always shown them-
selves ready to spend freely on objects of material
utility. Whereas the Governments of British India,
the Netherlands Indies, French Indo- China, and
even that enterprising novice among colonial adminis-
trations, the American Government of the Philippines,
have done, and are doing, a great deal in the way of
promoting the scientific study of their respective
countries and peoples, the Governments of the Malay
Peninsula have as yet done very little in that direc-
tion. The matter appears to have been overlooked,
owing to the pressure of other business. Yet, apart
from the high scientific value of such investigations,
there are not wanting signs of the times that point
to the supreme importance to European Governments
in the tropics of intimately studying and carefully
considering the peculiarities of the alien and less
civilised races committed to their care. There has