• The Straits Settlements refer to the grouping of three British colonial settlements which correspond to modern-day Singapore, Penang and Melaka.
• In 1824, with the signing of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty, the British East India Company took over the port of Melaka from the Dutch. With that, they came to control the strategic Straits of Melaka, having earlier established themselves at Penang (1786) and Singapore (1819).
• In 1826, to unify administration of their three commercial ports, the British East India Company formed the Straits Settlements. From the Chinese names of the ports – “石叻坡” (Singapore), “槟榔屿” (Penang), and “吗六呷” (Melaka) – arose a colloquial name for the Straits Settlements, “叻屿呷”.
• The term “州府” is made up of the words “州” (state) and “府” (government), and can be traced back to the administrative system set up in Tang-dynasty China which was used to centralise regional administrative power within the central government.
• The capital of the Straits Settlements was originally established in Penang but moved to Singapore in 1832.
• With the formation of the Malayan Union in 1946, the Straits Settlements were dissolved.

Inequality was inevitable between the ruling class and its subjects in the colonial era. After the war, the people in the Straits Settlements and Malaya began their political awakening. The moment when they could no longer accept being second-class citizens marked the end of the colonial era and the beginning of the Commonwealth of Nations. (Lianhe Zaobao, 20/6/2018)