A full hearing: orality and literacy in the Malay world . By Amin Sweeney, pp. ix, 338. Berkeley etc., University of California Press, 1987. US $37.50.

Abstract

All this said, the "decapitation" thesis still seems exaggerated. The author presents his evidence selectively. One of his major case studies deals with the Burma Spinning and Weaving Company. He alleges that "heavy financial burdens" were attached to a government loan to the company and insists that further loans ought to have been granted. The reality seems to have been rather different, according to the government report on the affair. The promoters of the company set out to raise Rs 30 Lakhs (or £225,000), but actually realised less than 11 Lakhs (not 15 Lakhs as stated, p. 73). They raised the remainder in loans on the open market" at exorbitant rates of interest". A government loan at 6 per cent per annum was granted instead. The Directors asked the government to take over their property: the object was to relieve the Burmese Directors of their liability for the loan. The government left the decision to the elected members of the legislature, who gave their approval. The transaction involved a public loss of more than Rs 5 Lakhs (£38,000). A very different story to that related by Aung Tun Thet (see Memorandum Submitted to the Statutory Commission, 1930, p. 132).