hese,
Java and Sumatra are the most important. They are divided into
"residencies," and the administering officers exercise control over the
various plantations. In addition, there are numerous private
plantations. The colonial administration is admirable.

Cane-sugar, coffee, rice, indigo, pepper, tobacco, and tea are the chief
products. The sugar industry has been somewhat crippled by the
beet-sugar product of Europe. Java and Sumatra coffees are in demand all
over Europe and the United States. Sumatra wrappers for cigars find also
a ready market wherever cigars are manufactured. The cultivation of
cinchona, or Peruvian bark, has proved successful, and this substance is
becoming an important export. The islands of Banka and Billiton (with
Riouw) yield a very large part of the world's supply of tin, much of
which goes finally to the United States. The mother-country profits by
the trade of these islands in two ways: the Dutch merchants are
practically middlemen who create and manage the commerce; the Dutch
Government receives an import tax of six per cent., and a small export
tax on nearly all articles except sugar. _Batavia_ is the focal point of
the commerce.

=Siam.=--This kingdom is chiefly important as a buffer state between
French and British India, and little by little has been pared by these
nations until practically nothing but the basin of the Menam River
remains. The administration of the state is progressive, and much of the
resources have been developed in the last few years.

Rice and teak are the leading products. The rice is cultivated by
native laborers--much of it by enforced labor--and is sold to Hongkong,
British India, and the more northerly states. It is collected by Chinese
middlemen, and by them sold to British and German exporters. The
teak-wood business is managed by British firms. The logs are cut by
natives, hauled to the Menam River, and floated to Bangkok; there they
are squared and sent to European markets. Pepper and preserved fish are
also exported. The Menam River is the chief trade-route, and _Bangkok_,
at its mouth, is the focal point of trade.

=French India.=--The French control the region south of China, called
French Indo-China, together with various areas in the peninsula of
Hindustan; of these Pondicheri and Karical are the most important.
Indo-China includes the basin of Mekong River, and rice is the staple
product. The most productive rice-fields are the delta-lands of th