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cus.  There was a 50-foot [[strikethrough]] ring [[/strikethrough]] ^[[center]] and two 55-foot ends.  The tent was packed (partly because they were giving a free show).  Bell, a pleasant young Australian, explained that he was the successor of Harmston's Circus, which had toured the East for forty years.  He had five elephants, a line of twenty or thirty horses and ponies, a bear, 2 lions, and, for performers, a Burmese juggler, a Chinese acrobat, a flying trapeze act, two clowns, a riding act, a manage act.  We met both Bell and his brother, and Chakovsky, the 60-year old flying trapeze artist.

[[underlined]] February 25 - Singapore [[/underlined]]

In the morning Mrs. Sellers called for me and took me shopping.  I was measured for some shorts, and bought some straw handbags.  At noon I met Bill and Mr. Williams at the Hotel, and at one Mr. Davis called for us and took us out to his house for lunch.  He has a beautiful place, with tennis court and garden, and a charming wife.  The house was spacious and cool, and a long strip of green baize, attached to a wooden frame at the top, hung over the dining table and was pulled by the punka-wallah all through the meal, gently back and forth, to give just the right amount of breeze.  We had a delicious curry, and a dessert that was new to all of us - gulah malacca - made of farina, coconut milk, and palm syrup.

After lunch we called on Mr. Hunter, Under-Secretary of the Colonial Office, who seemed willing to give us permits but asked us as a favor to him not to take any Malay gibbons.

We went on to the Raffles Museum.  All the ethnographic exhibits were draped in sheets, as some painting and re-decorating are being done, but we enjoyed seeing the Natural History exhibits and planning what we could do with some of the strange animals if we could catch them alive.  We stopped in to see Mr. Chasen, the Director, and had a very pleasant visit with him.

In the evening we went back to the Great World, and saw the circus again.  Later, as we were drinking beer with the Bells, we were introduced to Connie O'Neil, a famous local horse-trainer, and to Mr. Lee, the Chinese proprietor of the cabaret.  He insisted on our seeing his place, and we spent an hour or more there.  He has 110 taxi dance girls, mostly Chinese, but some Malays and Eurasians.  Bill danced with two Malay girls, and with one who looked like a Swede[[strikethrough]] d [[/strikethrough]] but said she was Chinese.

I had a dance with Mr. Lee. Later in the evening he pointed to my empty glass, and said - I thought - "Another glass?"  "No thank you," I said firmly.  "No more."

Mr. Bell said rather pointedly, "Mr. Lee is asking you for another dance."  So I had to have several, just to show that there was no bad feeling.

We got home about two A.M.

[[underline]] February 26 - Singapore [[/underline]]

In the morning we went around to see De Souza, the animal man, and while the men were talking I bought a dress from Mrs. DeSouza.  At the hotel the Proctors met us for lunch, and after lunch we went out to Besappa's Zoo on the Dongoll Road.  We went under the auspices of our

Transcription Notes:
Used the ^[[text]] notation for handwritten text in typed pages as requested by the Transcription Centre -@siobhanleachman