This poster advertises the extent of the Federated Malay States Railways (FMSR) with the term “The Golden Chersonese” or Golden Peninsula which was the name used for the Malay Peninsula by Greek and Roman geographers in classical antiquity. This rail system was particularly important for the European colonial vision of mapping the world. Produced only a year after the Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Cecil Clementi, opened a new terminal station in Singapore in 1932, the poster presents an idyllic representation of travel through the colony, adapting the terrain of a European countryside with palm trees to represent the Malayan jungle. At the opening of the terminal in Singapore, Sir Cecil Clementi said that he stood at the end of a chain of railways which would one day form a continuous line of permanent way from the Strait of Dover through Europe, Turkey, Mesopotamia, Persia, Baluchistan, India, Assam, Burma, Siam and Malaya to where he stood. Through the idealized representation of the jungle, this poster points to the expansionist European vision that underlined the construction of the FMSR. The poster was printed by Ying Wah fine art, Kuala Lumpur. The artist of the poster was Hugh Morton Le Fleming, a railway engineer who worked as an inspector for the Crown Agents for the Colonies, checking and testing steam locomotives before they were shipped out to their customers across the world. He was an amateur photographer and artist and some of his work appeared in promotional material for the FMSR. This poster is one of two known examples. He worked for the FMSR in 1929 as District Locomotive Superintendent in Ipoh. By 1931, he worked at its central Workshops in Kuala Lumpur. His archive can be found in the Royal Commonwealth Society collections.
