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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
‘The history of Singapore’, it has been remarked, ‘is written mainly in statistics.’ Fortunately, these were remarkably reliable by the 1880s, partly because of a strong administrative tradition, and partly because a free port and low taxes gave little incentive wilfully to deceive. But statistics relating to the pre-World War II period can sometimes appear confusing, and attention is drawn to the geographical definitions and figures 1.1 and 1.2. In 1928 the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, W. G. A. Ormsby Gore, found that:
I am rather baffled in attempting to get at the real trade figures of the (1) Straits Settlements (2) Federated Malay States (3) Unfederated Malay States. They seem to do so much importing and exporting through each other that I find it difficult to get the real imports and real exports of the different component parts of Malaya. Have you any print – say a Trade Customs Report or Reports – which would help me to unravel what produces what and how much. If so can you send the file or print down please?
In the judgement of Wong Lin Ken, Singapore's ‘pre-war statistics are something of a nightmare. A minor statistical bureau would be required to rearrange the statistical data’ to study the port's trade. That task, it is hoped, has been substantially accomplished in what follows.
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