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11/6/1963 - Women’s Place in a Changing World by Mildred K. Marcy

INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS Merlin Hotel November Kuala Lumpur Malasia November Mr Eichard H Nole Institute Current World Affairs Madison Avenue New York New York Dear Dick Perhaps following doesn qualify monthly letter being diary entry Neither writing being rough notes Nevertheless I November With onnie Marsh driver Chevrolet loaded luggage morning Raffles Hotel Singapore started drive western Malaya Kuala Lumpur Because easier Jot impressions occur depend recall which total I contentedly notebook which I following disconnected freely flowing observations Singapore Kula Lumpur through Johore Malacca Outside Ford Assembly Plant rubber plantations tapped first years after planting slanting spiral early morning white latex drips attached trunk until stops clotting blood around wound Thirty speed limit divided first highway Crossed causeway Straits Johore Indian Ocean South China Sea right Old palace grounds Suln Johore being turned botanical garden Johore where Han Suyin author Love Many Splendoured Thing Rain Drink The Mountain Is Young lives Drove through palace grounds private museum Sultan Mosque Free hospital treatment regardless illness length Wonder waiting And whether malingering national disease Malay schools story buildings raised conere posts Johore largest prosperous state Malaya three fourths Jungle Pineapple cotton textiles processing plants Tapioca trees sustained population during Japanese occupa Tapioca comes roots trees which pulled planted their places Tapioca roots boiled potatoes What U S grated nodules During Emergency Malayans fought Jungle warfare munlst terrorists driver served three years communists Jungle Datepalm groves processing plants cooking Tightly trained symmetrical black pepper plants Also trying coffee cocoa Malay thatched houses stilts shade rubber trees billowy clouds monsoon lowering Tall round Jars drinking cloudburst White school children running Chinese school How their mothers spotless NotSing packed surrounds houses Shelters across gullies sides highway thatched corrugated metal roofs benches facing other National character difference between U S benches these revealed slant In America upright Z alert ready action In Malaya leans relaxes intending never arise Many Malay houses wooden stilts concrete blocks protection tettes monsoons separate Sheltes thatch roofed protectir small English German We ferry nudged across river Pahat C several pictu2es inches rainfall Plumeria trees blossoms colors mostly white yellow andpink among coconut palms Same blossoms Hawaiians Water buffalo grazing beside highway tlmes stopping traffic decide grass greener other Children going school Saturday school weeks their white school shoes requlred attendance carry small rattan basket while scamper muddily barefoot along highway Ronnie Marsh driver drove three hours around Singapore island He proudly Eurasian about I Singapore Born Kuala Lumpur lived Singapore years Is mixture Portuguese Malacca Dutch Chinese mostly Malay brown Malays rather paler creamy yellow Chinese black purple bloom Indians SOon after crossed river Malacca Carl picture lovely intrlcateiy carved Malay house family Sitting onthe verandah flowers blooming pr0fuselyeve_rywhere Bil yg0ats chickens water buffalo Broad yellow grenwetland fields Small Sheets creamy latex 0verbamboo poles drying front yards manyhuts B trees clusters ripenuts looking nlate coconuts Kuala Lumpur means swampy place Dozens white storks paddies protected shooting because eatticks cattle water buffalo Early afternoon Malacca Malacca appears founded hundred years remained Malay kingdom spreading whole peninsula In meanwhile itself great trading The heroes Malay romance Tun Perak Kingmaker andHang Tuah great admiral belong period Malay history It Portuguese Admiral Lopez Sequelra sailed ships Malacca bearing letter fromthe Portugal Sultan Mahmud Two years later Alfonse D Albuquerque Portuguese viceroy Goa India returned ships Malacca forces after battle which Malays fought bravely overcome suPerlor aments The Portuguese years A Famosa The Famous D Albuquerque built Now silted existence Only small freighters drowsily anchor The distinguished tourist Malacca arrived Portuguese hands S years He Francis Xavier Apostle Indies He found great wickedness wrote There chandise which traders regard little account It called conscience little esteemed those parts merchants believe would bankrupt invested We couldn inspect ruins A Famosa remains gates which guarded fortress right beside built St Francis Xavier urled Christ Church square Malacca stone stucco painted complet Malacca unusual pleasing shade orangey ingredients derived stone around there similarityo color range Influ Portuguese overlaid Dutch Interior whlte brown wooden ceiling Portuguese wooden carvings crescents behind altar sunlight reflected overhanging bounced Malacca exterior walls gives effect wedges stained glass sunset colors Visited small Malacca Museum mostly Chinese chaisa benches heavily carved inlaid mother pearl marvelous examples Chinese white porcelain Chinese graves hillsides facing water Three durlan fruit trees pungent terrible relished fruit Malaya On outskirts Malacca beautiful Chinese temples carved gilded painted spangled After lunch house while driving through narrow streets crowded shoppers Ithls multl raclal community B banner stall caught KENNEDY MURDER DETAILS That unusual murder victim world Nearly every nationality lives melting Malaysia first Irish I heard since being Oh there another before yesterday Singa headline mentioned Dutton Immediately I thought Fred Asst Sec State Congressional Relations Washington chagrined provincial I realized official Singapore The banner Carl looking opposite window Shall I mention Or I Just superstitious enough think I saying anything awful thing could happened I Carl quietly three words I As quietly responded The I Malaya Senator Sparkman entered house Penang French planters broke Russian sputnik Neither tioned headline again arrived Kuala Lumpur registered Merlin Hotel turned clock afraid turned President John F Kennedy assassinated Dallas Texas The notes To right heavily wooded Jungle hillsides where communist guerrillas during Emer gency forays populace Took years moving people their heavily guarded lages Wouldn allow people countryside carried catty The Emergency lasted There still about terrorists hills along border Thailand Ducks swimming Ice paddies setting reddens chartreuse brown ponds stalks Sincerely yours Mildred Marcy Received New York December