Abstract
Latex production has steadily increased during the last few years, as shown by the figures in Table I, which have been extracted from data published by the International Rubber Regulation Committee. Since 1934, output has nearly doubled, and for this year it is estimated, from the average figures for the first nine months of the year, that it will amount to approximately 35,000 tons. No statistics are published as to the respective amounts of preserved field latex and concentrated latex which comprise this 35,000 tons, but assuming the latex to contain an average of 50 per cent dry rubber, this quantity would represent approximately 16,000,000 gallons. Almost the whole of this latex is exported from Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies, only a negligible quantity being shipped from other rubber-growing countries. This production is confined to relatively few estates and in this respect affords a strong contrast to the production of estate rubber in the form of sheet or crepe, which is spread over many estates and small holdings (in Ceylon alone it is computed that rubber is produced on 100,000 estates and small holdings, mostly the latter). Latex production must of necessity be limited to the larger estates for both technical and commercial reasons, as the smallest consignments which are conveniently handled by European importers are around 500 gallons, and for some estates even the production of this quantity entails bulking several days' crop. On the other hand, some large estates export regularly 20,000 gallons or more every month, and the practice is growing of bulking supplies from individual small estates at central factories.
American Visions of the Netherlands East Indies/Indonesia: US Foreign Policy and Indonesian Nationalism, 1920-1949
