stentatious, self-important
Rolls-Royces to busybody Fords. Standing in the middle of the roadway,
controlling and directing this roaring river of traffic with surprising
efficiency are diminutive Javanese policemen wearing blue helmets many
sizes too large for them and armed with revolvers, swords and clubs.

The port of Surabaya, which is the busiest in the entire Insulinde, is
four miles from the business section of the city, with which it is
connected by a splendid asphalt highway lined by huge warehouses,
factories, godowns and oil-tanks, many of them bearing familiar
American names. In fact, one of the first things to attract my
attention in Java was the great variety of American articles on sale
and in use--motor cars, tires, typewriters, office supplies, cameras,
phonographs, agricultural machinery of all descriptions.

More than a tenth of Surabaya's population is Chinese and their
commercial influence dominates the whole city. They have the finest
residences, the most luxurious clubs, the largest shops, the
handsomest motor cars. I was shown a row of warehouses extending along
the canal for one long block which are the property of a single
Chinese. Wherever I traveled in the Indies I was impressed by the
business acumen and success of these impassive, industrious sons of the
Flowery Kingdom. They are the Greeks of the Far East but without the
Greek's unscrupulousness and lack of dependability. A Chinese will not
hesitate to take advantage of you in a business deal, but if he once
gives you his word he will always keep it, no matter at what cost to
himself, and if you should leave your pocketbook in his shop he will
come hurrying after you to restore it. The Chinese living in the Indies
are uniformly prosperous--many of them are millionaires--they have
their own clubs and chambers of commerce and charitable organizations;
they not infrequently control the finances of the districts in which
they live and, generally speaking, they make excellent citizens.

* * * * *

Java has almost exactly the same area--50,000 square miles--and the
same population--34,000,000--as England. Agriculturally, it is the
richest country of its size in the world. Because I wished to visit the
great tea and coffee and indigo plantations of its interior and to see
its palaces and temples and monuments, I decided to traverse the island
from end to end by train and motor car. Accordingly we left the
_Negr