Britain, Malaysia And Southeast Asia: Past, Present And Future

I want to thank Asia Pacific Research Unit (APRU), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and Professor Ooi Keat Gin for bringing me to Penang again. It is always pleasant to be here. It is nearly fifty years since I first came, and there have been many changes. There were, of course, no USM, no APRU, and only, I fancy, a very small Ooi Keat Gin. But Penang has a respect for its past, and much of what I saw then I can still see. And the past goes back to the settlement of Georgetown and the building of Fort Cornwallis. Rambling round them a historian finds evocative. Who was there before? And why? Starting my study of the British in Malaysian history, not quite sixty years ago, under the guidance of an old Malayan Civil Service (MCS) hand, the late Victor Purcell, I was struck by the fact that I had to use, not only the records of the Colonial Office and Foreign Office in London, but also those of the East India Company and the India Office, then preserved in the Foreign Office itself, and now in the British Library

From Seafet And Asa: Precursors Of Asean

With the disappearance of the imperial structures that had dominated Southeast Asia, newly-independent states had to develop foreign policies of their own. So far few, if any, have been willing to allow historians to explore the documentary evidence that has no doubt been preserved. Somewhat paradoxically, they must turn to the archives of external powers, which largely follow a thirty-year rule. Their diplomats were indeed often keenly interested in collecting information from ministers, on the golf course or otherwise, and from officials, who might convey or leak it more or less straightforwardly. In my recent book, Regionalism in Southeast Asia, I was able to incorporate material from United Kingdom (UK) records on the development of Southeast Asia Friendship and Economic Treaty (SEAFET), Association of Southeast Asia States (ASA) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). I have been turning more recently to the material in the New Zealand archives, which contain not only reports from New Zealand diplomats but also from Australian and Canadian diplomats as well. They have both supported and modified my conclusions

Marine ecology: a wonderland of marine activity in the Arctic night

Studies carried out on a wide variety of Arctic species during the polar night reveal continued feeding, growth and reproduction, changing our view of this period from one of biological stasis to a time of continued high activity level

The Treasury and the New Cambridge School in the 1970s

Pre-print issued as discussion paper by University of Exeter. The article has been accepted for publication in Cambridge Journal of Economics © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved.With the release of Treasury papers from the 1970s under the 30-year rule we have a much more complete picture of the dispute in the 1970s between the Treasury and the Cambridge Economic Policy Group, especially given the role of three Cambridge economists -- Nicholas Kaldor, Wynne Godley and Francis Cripps – as ministerial advisers at the time. The records show the Treasury and the CEPG eventually meeting near the middle regarding the latter’s proposition of stable private-sector NAFA (Net Acquisition of Private Sector Assets) and its implications for demand management and the balance of payments. By contrast, the initial differences on counter-inflation policy and, above all, on import controls versus free trade were wider at the end of the decade than at the start of it

Scholarly Viewpoints

The nation-state paradigm for writing history—which goes back to Leopold von Ranke and the foundation of the modern discipline —was sometimes dismissed in the late 20th century when the state was supposed, amid economic and cultural "globalisation," to be withering away. But it is still very much alive in areas where the nation-state is still establishing itself as the pre-eminent political entity. And that includes much of the "Asia Pacific." ASEAN is built on the Bandung principles that endorsed sovereignty and non-intervention. Japan was the first "modern" state in East Asia. China has, perhaps, a more ambiguous attitude. New Zealand—if not Australia, too—is very much into navel-gazing. Indeed it sometimes seems that neighbours are reluctant to write about neighbours. Language is often a barrier, but sensitivity perhaps even more often. Those who write about "regions" tend to be "outsiders" especially students of politics and "security." Historians are more cautious. The archives they need are often closed and they wonder whether a region has realit

Styles of underplating in the Marin Headlands Terrane, Franciscan Complex, California

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in The Geological Society of America Special Papers following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version: "Regalla, C., Rowe, C., Harrichhausen, N., Tarling, M. and Singh, J., 2018. Styles of underplating in the Marin Headlands Terrane, Franciscan Complex, California. GSA Special Publications no. 534" is available online at: http://rock.geosociety.org/Store/detail.aspx?id=spe534.Geophysical images and structural cross-sections of accretionary wedges are usually aligned orthogonal to the subduction trench axis. These sections often reveal underplated duplexes of subducted oceanic sediment and igneous crust that record trench-normal shortening and wedge thickening facilitated by down-stepping of the décollement. However, this approach may under-recognize trench-parallel strain and the effects of faulting associated with flexure of the downgoing plate. New mapping of a recently exposed transect across a portion of the Marin Headlands terrane, California, USA documents evidence for structural complexity over short spatio-temporal scales within an underplated system. We document the geometry, kinematics, vergence and internal architecture of faults and folds along ~2.5 km of section, and identify six previously unmapped intra-formational imbricate thrusts and thirteen high-angle faults that accommodate shortening and flattening of the underthrust section. Thrust faults occur within nearly every lithology without clear preference for any stratigraphic horizon, and fold vergence varies between imbricate sheets by ~10-40°. In our map area, imbricate bounding thrusts have relatively narrow damage zones (≤5-10 m), sharp, discrete fault cores, and lack veining, in contrast to the wide, highly-veined fault zones previously documented in the Marin Headlands terrane. The spacing of imbricate thrusts combined with paleo-convergence rates indicates relatively rapid generation of new fault surfaces on ~10-100 ka timescales, a process which may contribute to strain hardening and locking within the seismogenic zone. The structural and kinematic complexity documented in the Marin Headlands are an example of the short spatial and temporal scales of heterogeneity that may characterize regions of active underplating. Such features are smaller than the typical spatial resolution of geophysical data from active subduction thrusts, and may not be readily resolved, thus highlighting the need for cross-comparison of geophysical data with field analogues when evaluating the kinematic and mechanical processes of underplating

Strong contribution of diatom resting spores to deep-sea carbon transfer in naturally iron-fertilized waters downstream of South Georgia

Biogeochemical and diatom export fluxes are presented from two bathypelagic sediment trap deployments in the Antarctic Zone of the Southern Ocean. One of the sediment traps was deployed in very productive, naturally iron-fertilized waters downstream of South Georgia (P3, 2000 m) and compared to a deployment in moderately productive waters upstream of the island system (P2, 1500 m). At both sites significant diatom export events occurred in spring (November) and contained mostly empty cells that were associated with low particulate organic carbon (POC) fluxes. A summer export pulse occurred one month later at P2 (end February/March) compared to P3 (end January). Diatom fluxes at P3 were one order of magnitude higher than at P2, a difference mainly attributed to the short and intense export of resting spores from Chaetoceros Hyalochaete and Thalassiosira antarctica species. Aside from these resting spores, diatom export assemblages at both sites were dominated by empty Fragilariopsis kerguelensis frustules. The fraction of diatoms exported as empty frustules was considerably lower at P3 (52%) than P2 (91%). This difference was related to the flux of intact diatom resting spores at P3 and may partially explain the lower Si:C export stoichiometry observed at P3 (1.1) compared to P2 (1.5). Through the enumeration of full diatom frustules and subsequent biomass calculations we estimate that diatom resting spores account for 42% of annual POC flux in the productive waters downstream of South Georgia. At both sites the contribution of diatom vegetative stages to POC fluxes was considerably lower (<5%). From these analyses we conclude that resting spore export contributes towards the slightly higher bathypelagic (POC) flux at P3 (40.6 mmol m−2 y−1) compared to P2 (26.4 mmol m−2 y−1). We compared our sediment trap records with previously published diatom assemblage data from the mixed layer and surface sediments (3760 m) around South Georgia. The relative proportion of diatom resting spores within diatom assemblages increases as a function of depth and is explained by selective preservation of their robust frustules. Our study highlights the significance of diatom resting spore export as a carbon vector out of the mixed layer. Furthermore, the contribution or resting spores to POC flux in the bathypelagic ocean and sediments suggests they play a particularly important role in sequestering biologically fixed CO2 over climatically relevant timescales

The Labour Government, the Treasury and the £6 pay policy of July 1975

The 1974-79 Labour Government was elected in a climate of opinion that was fiercely opposed to government intervention in the wage determination process, and was committed to the principles of free collective bargaining in its manifestoes. However, by December 1974 the Treasury was advocating a formal incomes policy, and by July 1975 the government had introduced a £6 flat rate pay norm. With reference to archival sources, the paper demonstrates that TUC and Labour Party opposition to incomes policy was reconciled with the Treasury's advocacy by limiting the Bank of England‟s intervention in the foreign exchange market when sterling came under pressure. This both helped to achieve the Treasury's objective of improving the competitiveness of British industry, and acted as a catalyst for the introduction of incomes policy because the slide could be attributed to a lack of market confidence in British counter-inflation policy

Copepod faecal pellet transfer through the meso- and bathypelagic layers in the Southern Ocean in spring

The faecal pellets (FP) of zooplankton can be important vehicles for the transfer of particulate organic carbon (POC) to the deep ocean, often making large contributions to carbon sequestration. However, the routes by which these FP reach the deep ocean have yet to be fully resolved. We address this by comparing estimates of FP production to measurements of FP size, shape and number in the upper mesopelagic (175–205 m), using Marine Snow Catchers, and in the bathypelagic, using sediment traps (1,500–2,000 m). The study is focussed on the Scotia Sea, which contains some of the most productive regions in the Southern Ocean, where epipelagic FP production is likely to be high. We found that, although the size distribution of zooplankton suggests that high numbers of small FP are produced in the epipelagic, small FP are rare in the deeper layers, implying that they are not transferred efficiently to depth. Consequently, small FP make only a minor contribution to FP fluxes in the meso- and bathypelagic, particularly in terms of carbon. The dominant FP in the upper mesopelagic were cylindrical and elliptical, while ovoid FP were dominant in the bathypelagic. The change in FP morphology, as well as size distribution, points to the repacking of surface FP in the mesopelagic and in situ production in the lower meso- and bathypelagic, augmented by inputs of FP via zooplankton vertical migrations. The flux of carbon to the deeper layers within the Southern Ocean is therefore strongly modulated by meso- and bathypelagic zooplankton, meaning that the community structure in these zones has a major impact on the efficiency of FP transfer to depth

Pteropod eggs released at high pCO2 lack resilience to ocean acidification

The effects of ocean acidification (OA) on the early recruitment of pteropods in the Scotia Sea, was investigated considering the process of spawning, quality of the spawned eggs and their capacity to develop. Maternal OA stress was induced on female pteropods (Limacina helicina antarctica) through exposure to present day pCO2 conditions and two potential future OA states (750 μatm and 1200 μatm). The eggs spawned from these females, both before and during their exposure to OA, were incubated themselves in this same range of conditions (embryonic OA stress). Maternal OA stress resulted in eggs with lower carbon content, while embryonic OA stress retarded development. The combination of maternal and embryonic OA stress reduced the percentage of eggs successfully reaching organogenesis by 80%. We propose that OA stress not only affects the somatic tissue of pteropods but also the functioning of their gonads. Corresponding in-situ sampling found that post-larval L. helicina antarctica concentrated around 600 m depth, which is deeper than previously assumed. A deeper distribution makes their exposure to waters undersaturated for aragonite more likely in the near future given that these waters are predicted to shoal from depth over the coming decades