Curiosities from the Malay Realms

In the 1930s the Malay Peninsula was almost entirely covered in jungle. Malaya, as the collection of British territories was known pre-independence, was a key producer of rubber. The rubber tree, indigenous to Brazil, grew just as well in the Far East and quickly rose to become one of Malaya’s key cash crops. Rubber plantations dotted the peninsula. Employment on these large estates attracted workers from the UK and Europe, and it was as one of these transplants to the…

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(Continued from Part 1 here) Rumbles in the Jungle After the war ended, Hislop returned to Scotland to convalesce. Naturally, he planned to return to his beloved Malaya as soon as possible, and hoped to finally trade in his role as a rubber planter for one as a game warden. In April 1946 he once again took up residence in his old rubber estate. Ever keen to improve his junglecraft, he began to hear whispers and rumours, and saw for…

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