Handbook to British Malaya.

London: Malay States Information Agency,, 1926. First edition, first impression, scarce in commerce, of this guide intended "to give the public a better acquaintance with a very far from unimportant portion of the vast areas over which the British flag flies" (preface). Detailed chapters, supported with many photographic illustrations, provide a wealth of statistical and observational data on the colony's economy and society. The author (b.1892) joined the Malayan colonial administration following service with the Hampshire Regiment on the Western Front. As he notes in his preface, "when a public newspaper refers (as was recently the case) to the 'Sultan of Malay', a shadowy title to which nine several [sic] rulers might lay an equal, if unsubstantiated claim; when the difference between the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, and the Unfederated Malay States, and even the location of the areas thus named, are matters upon which the expensively educated Briton can boast at best but the haziest conceptions, it will not be surprising that the resources and possibilities of those lands... are as a closed book to the potential investor. It is hoped that the Handbook may do something to dispel this ignorance". While later editions of this handbook are readily available, copies of the first complete with the map are rather more elusive. Octavo. Half-tone frontispiece after a photograph of Governor Sir Laurence Guillemard, 59 similar plates, 580 x 460 mm folding colour map of British Malaya in 1924 in rear pocket, tables in text. Original red sand-grained half cloth, spine lettered in black, red sides, front cover lettered in black. Ex-Armstrong College Library, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, with its discrete ink stamps on the title page, map verso, and at isolated points in text. Boards worn with two areas of skinning, one sometime re-touched with colour, front inner hinge a little tender but still holding firm, free endpapers with couple of small closed tears, one skilfully repaired with tissue, contents clean, folding map bright without tears. A very good copy.