The Malay Archipelago is not only by far the largest group of islands in the world, but it is also from the standpoint of its vegetation one of the very richest regions on the globe. In this paper the term Malaysia is used to cover not only the Sunda Islands that form the center of the Netherlands East Indies—Sumatra, Java, and Borneo—but also the Malay Peninsula, in itself almost an island and biologically a part of the region, the Philippine Islands to the northeast, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Celebes, the Moluccas, and New Guinea. From northern Sumatra to eastern New Guinea the distance is approximately 3,000 miles and the land area of the region designated herein as Malaysia is somewhat in excess of 1,200,000 square miles.

The first census of the Philippines during the period of American occupation was taken on March 2,1903. About sixteen years later, the second census was taken. The need for a new census became apparent as the Philippines entered the Commonwealth period and approached final independence. The National Assembly passed a bill providing for the taking of a census which was approved and became Commonwealth Act No. 170, on November 12, 1936. President Quezon requested the services of an expert on census matters from the United States Government on August 17, 1937. The services of Mr. Ray Hurley, Acting Chief Statistician of Territorial, Insular, and Foreign Statistics of the United States Bureau, of the Census, were secured and upon his arrival in Manila he was appointed Expert on Census Matters effective as of October 9, 1937.

In the decade between the beginning of the world depression and the Japanese occupation of the islands there appeared a steadily mounting volume of literature on the Netherlands East Indies. This was a reflection of the increasing interest taken by the world, and by the United States in particular, in this large, tropical, insular dependency, but it was also an indication of the rapid social economic and political developments within the dependency. Before 1930 interest in the Netherlands Indies was not great; since 1930 world interest in it increased rapidly and by the end of the decade had become keen. The large corps of well-trained, scientifically minded Dutch officials sent forth a steadily increasing number of excellent studies on various phases of Indies life. Obviously, it is impossible to review the entire field of this literature; only the more significant contributions can be here considered.