Sumatra

Native rubber production in 1925 was 53,000 tons. Pepper pro duction in 1926 was about 23,00o tons and copra production, chiefly native, 33,366 tons. Padang shipped 14,607 buffalo hides and 8,879 cow hides also 1,317 tons of damar, ioo tons of gum benzoin and 1,000 tons of rattan, whilst Palembang shipped (1926), 3,633 tons of rattan and 1,053 tons of gum benzoin. Tanning barks to the ex tent of 18,800 tons were shipped from Sumatra East Coast, and 4,900 tons of areca nuts, also 2,339 tons of areca nuts from Palem bang. Shipments of areca nuts from Acheen (quantities unascer tainable) were much larger. The total imports and exports for Sumatra in 1926 were, respectively, 191,528,180 guilders and guilders. Exports from Belawan were 189,463,289 guilders, from Palembang 89,287,248 guilders and from Padang 27,289,775 guilders.

Industries.

Coal is mined at Ombilin, near Sawah Lunto, in the Padang highlands (mining started in 1892), at Bukit Asem, 12 km. south-west of Muaro Enim, in Palembang, at Pulu Pung gung, Darmo, Buluran and Laje, in Palembang, and at Bukit Durian (West Coast). Ombilin and Bukit Asem are operated by the Government and are modern-equipped. Production in 1925 was, Ombilin, 543,745 tons and Bukit Asem 245,638 tons. Pe troleum is secured in Achin, East Coast, Palembang and Jambi. Crude petroleum production in 1925 was—Palembang 441,588 tons, East Coast 79,579 tons, Achin 74,670 tons and Jambi 13,274 tons. The oil produces benzene, kerosene and lubricating oil. Gold and silver are mined on the West Coast and in Bencoolen. Government-owned mines in 1925 produced gold worth 550,281 guilders, and silver worth 1,608,198 guilders, the Rejang-Lebong mine, gold 2,117,244 guilders and silver 460,076 guilders, the Simau mine, gold 2,334,507 and silver 910,952 guilders, the Aequator mine, gold 926,456 guilders and silver 983,641 guilders, and the Kinandam mine, gold 187,220 and silver guilders. Lead, sulphur, naphtha, alum and saltpetre are found, also lignite and magnetite. A tank for palm oil has been completed at the port of Belawan, from which the oil will be pumped to steamers.

Some authorities suggest that Sumatra, not Ceylon, may have been the Taprobane of Pliny. The island was the first to receive the Hindu emigrants whose descendants by the 7th century had made it the seat of a powerful Hindu Kingdom. In

the 13th century the Arabs invaded Achin and Mohammedanism took firm hold of some of the most important states. On ancient inscriptions discovered in the Padang highlands, the island was called "the first Java"; Marco Polo called it "Java Minor." It became known to Europeans as Sumatra through Ludovico de Varthema, an Italian, in 1505. The Portuguese established a trad ing post about 1509 and were driven out by the Dutch at the end of the century. For the next three centuries the Dutch were engaged in costly efforts to establish supremacy in Achin: a thirty years' war, started in 1873, is estimated to have cost 250,000 lives and L50,000,000 sterling. In 1602, the English first visited Achin, when Sir John Lancaster was well received, and eleven years later, to the annoyance of Dutch and Portuguese, were given permission to start a factory. Elsewhere Dutch sovereignty was gradually extended—in 1664 over Indra-pura ; in 1666 over Padang; in 1620 they secured a modest concession in Palembang; the Sultans repeatedly sought to throw off the yoke; twice—in 1654 and 1819—the Dutch were actually driven out, and not till after a serious revolt in 1851 had been suppressed was their tenure secure. In Jambi the efforts of the Sultans to escape the consequences of concessions were equally persistent. Throughout the 18th century Dutch and British maintained a constant rivalry in Sumatran waters. Benkulen, where the English acquired a foot ing in 1685, was among the sources of irritation to the Dutch, and was handed over to them in 1824 in exchange for Malacca. In Deli, in Menangkabau—whose princes claimed descent from Sul tan Iskander (Alexander the Great)—and elsewhere, the Dutch established their authority in the teeth of repeated insurgence and generally as the result of the quarrels of native rulers who invoked their help and had to pay the price. Politically Sumatra is not as far advanced as Java, but is under the Governor General of the Netherlands East Indies, and enjoys the same representative rights in the Volksraad. (C. H.; E. S.)