Description

Papers of Thomas Bradwall Barlow

19/1: Letters from managers 3 January – 24 December 1936. Comprising:

• letters from F. H. Williams, acting manager, Barlow and Co., Kuala Lumpur, including negotiations over Indian labour rates with United Planting Association of Malaysia, general rubber estate management, staffing etc., letter from the Rubber Institute of Malaya concerning pollarding of rubber trees, report of W. A. Stanton on pollarding on the Jin Seng estate, local health administration on the Chersonese estate, improvements in the price of rubber and other commodities from July on;
• copies of letters to Sir John D. Barlow (sent to Thomas B. Barlow) concerning Japanese competition in the cotton goods and other trades in Malaya, textiles import quota scheme, analysis of decline in piece goods trade with Manchester between 1935-36;
• letters from Duncumbe Sear, upon his return to Kuala Lumpur from December on, including staffing matters on Muar River and Torkington estates, report by W. A. Stanton on the Bigia estate;
• letters from F. H. Curtis, acting manager, Barlow and Co., Singapore and G. H. Bowen, upon his return as manager from April 1936, including general estate business, rubber market and improving prices up to December;
• copies of his letters to Sir John D. Barlow concerning piece and rough goods trade with Manchester, Japanese competition, correspondence relating to Torkington estate title deeds (29 MAY 1936), new agency work;
• letters from C. H. Fryer, manager, Barlow and Co., Shanghai, concerning winding up of the Shanghai office by July 1936, negotiations with Jardine Matheson regarding transfer of rubber and provision business.[Some staining]

19/2: Letters from managers 2 January 1937 – 1 July 1938. Comprising:

• letters from G. H. Bowen, manager, Barlow and Co., Singapore including copies of his letters to Sir John D. Barlow;
• regarding fluctuations in rubber prices leading to big jump in early 1937, falling away by the year’s end, comments on growing threat of war in Europe and between China and Japan, detailed reports on Japanese competition in textiles, working of the piece goods quota scheme, question of raising protectionist duties, general agency business including Rothman’s Cigarettes, Allen and Hanbury’s, Slazenger and Milton’s;
• letters from Duncumbe Sear, manager, Barlow and Co., Kuala Lumpur, with reports of visiting agents and managers on various rubber estates including W. A. Stanton on the Huntly Estate (Seafield Rubber Co. Ltd), the Jin Seng and Torkington estates, R. Barker, C. J. Renshaw and W. Miller Mackay on the start of rubber tapping on the Torkington estate, J. W. Allgrove on the Klabang estate in relation to the manager McCurdy’s dismissal;
• Angus Fraser, on his site inspection of the Bradwall estate after three years of closure;
• further correspondence with W. Miller Mackay, manager of the Tebrau estate, with comments on the rubber trade, price fluctuations and rubber restriction scheme;
• letters relating to the alienation of jungle land for rubber cultivation with reference to the Muar River and Somme estates, negotiations over Indian labour rates between the United Planting Association of Malaysia and the Controller of Labour.