Eastern Customs: The Customs Service in British Malaya and the Opium Trade

Generations of young Britons made their careers in Malaya. Some scaled the heights of the administrative service and are well recorded in the formal histories. The great majority served their time in less glamorous departments of government, whose activities remain largely unremarked. Derek Mackay' offers a vivid portrait of British Malaya's customs department. Skillfully tracing the history of the service and the experiences of its expatriate officers, tackling smuggling and the controversial opium trade, he provides an exciting new insight into the British imperial administration.