The seventh session of the Third U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea has just ended after three months (28 March to 19 May, and 22 August to 15 September 1978). There seems to be general agreement that territorial waters should be extended from the traditional 3-mile limit out to 12 miles (19 kilometres) offshore, and that every coastal state is entitled to an economic zone reaching 200 miles. More than 40 countries have established, or are in the process of establishing, 200 miles (320 kilometres) offshore as a fishery zone, economic zone, or territorial sea. To many states, the 200-mile economic zone is already a fact of international law. But there is still some disagreement over how much control coastal states should exercise over the adjacent 200 miles of water.

The rise of the three great rice-producing and -exporting deltas of mainland Southeast Asia numbers among the most familiar chapters in the modern history of the region. On a macro level, it exemplifies the integration of the region into the North Atlantic-centered world economy during the age of high imperialism and the consequent shock of the depression of the 1930s. On a micro level, that rise has offered historians an opportunity to examine the responses of Southeast Asian cultivators to market signals; the variation in the allocation of factors of production across the Irrawaddy, Chao Phraya and Mekong deltas; and the implications of those responses and that allocation for reactions to the shock of the inter-war crisis. The principal features of the history of the mainland rice economies between 1850 and the 1930s have indeed grown so familiar as to make that history seem like yesterday's topic. Occasional attempts to propose significant revision to the story have had little impact. And the need for a major monograph on the economic history of the Mekong delta during the French colonial period remains unmet.

This study of river names seeks to deepen our understanding of the pre-modern environmental history of northern Vietnam. A performative practice, naming places often reveals the transformation of a physical environment into a cultural one. By analysing the names given to antecedents of the Red River in northern Vietnam, this article argues that each historical name reflected its users’ perception of their relationship with a respective river. Toponyms like Lô, Phú Lương, Nhị, and ‘Great River’, therefore, did not simply represent the present-day Red River — a geographical unit that dates to the French colonial period.

Finds of imported ceramics, especially early Chinese stonewares, are relatively rare in the mountainous interior of Sumatra. In 1977, however, Indonesian archaeologists discovered a series of five megalithic sites in Kecamatan Sumberjaya, Kabupaten Lampung Utara, about 85 kilometres northwest of Kotabumi the district administrative centre and some distance south of the road to Liwa and Krui. These sites were completely unknown in the Dutch colonial period and only came to light when Javanese immigrants moved in to the area in the nineteen fifties. Consequently, the present names by which these locations are known tend to reflect recent Javanese usage rather than indigenous nomenclature. Excavations at the complex known as Telagamukmin in Desa Purwawiwitan, Kecamatan Sumberjaya in 1980 revealed considerable quantities of locally made earthenware sherds and fragments of imported south Chinese stonewares dating from the ninth to tenth centuries, the Five Dynasties and northern Song periods in China. A bronze bracelet, two bronze blades and other metal fragments were also recovered. Quantities of ceramic sherds have also been recovered as surface finds at other locations including Batuberak and Batutameng Desa Purajaya, Ciptaarga, Bungin and Cabangdua.

This paper illustrates the Japanese cultural policy towards the Philippines through the example of the New Philippine Cultural Institute, an educational institution created by the Japanese military to inculcate the Filipino youth with patriotism and to nurture the future leaders of the “New Philippines”. This organization developed later into a volunteer army which showed determination to fight against the returning U.S. forces.

Swidden cultivation has long been seen as incompatible with state goals for development, modernisation and environmental protection in Vietnam. This article provides a history of anti-swidden programmes since the French colonial period: how targets were selected, how different justifications were used, how interventions were implemented, and what the impacts were. Shifts occurred over time in targets, tools, and techniques, due to leeway available to local officials and resistance of target populations, but which also prolonged overall anti-swidden campaigns by providing opportunities for continual reinvention. Shifting justifications have allowed for new funding and approaches over time, while remaining rooted in misunderstandings and cultural chauvinism.

The Chinese Protectorate was first established in Singapore in 1877 with the limited objective of preventing abuses in Chinese labour migration, but it evolved multiple functions dedicated to governing Chinese migrants and residents in colonised Malaya. The Protector possessed extensive statutory powers and he was regarded as the official authority on all matters ‘Chinese’. This was an important yet under-studied colonial institution in the history of Chinese migration and settlement in Singapore and Malaysia. This article narrates the history behind the establishment of the Protectorate in the 1870s when ‘racialised governmentality’ of the Chinese population was institutionalised in colonised Malaya. The article underscores the significance of imperial and local contexts of the Protectorate's creation, arguing that it was a product of flexible adaptation of empire-wide practices of ‘protecting’ and governing liberated slaves, indigenous peoples and subsequently, indentured Indian labourers ‘humanely’. It is notable, therefore, that there was a coeval and conjoined discussion of migration control of Chinese as well as Indian labour migrants in Malaya during this period, but this history is hidden from plain sight by popular approaches studying labour migration as components of ethnic diasporas migrating from a single point of origin.

It is a biological fact that the health of mother and child are interdependent. The care, attention and affection given by the mother to her young offspring are of major significance in the psychobiological development of the infant and indeed, in subsequent personality development. Suggestions have been made that special attention to a pregnant woman brings double health benefits: to her as an adult member of society, and to the outcome of her pregnancy. Although childbearing is a natural process, women all over the world do not possess full faith in the ability and self-sufficiency of the human body to deliver safely a healthy baby. Pregnancy has been described as a unique and ambiguous state for women: it is not a usual condition nor a medically pathological state, so it is especially problematic. Several influences are known to affect women's pregnancy outcome. Factors relating to the mother—such as age, parity (or the number of births she has had), her age at marriage, socio-economic status such as education, occupation and income, and past obstetric history, are likely to be interdependent in their influence on pregnancy outcome. However, complications of pregnancy and delivery brought about by the interdependence of these factors can be prevented by careful antenatal care. Presumably, this type of care is closely related with modern medical science, thus only available in clinics. Consequently, the prevention of the many complications of pregnancy rests more with seeking careful antenatal care from the clinic than with any other factors.

An individual observing the varied complex course of Laotian events since the 1954 Geneva conference on Indochina can well appreciate the frustrations experienced by Alice as she watched the animals run their caucus race. From 1954 to 1957, Laos followed a generally pro-Western foreign policy but government leaders would occasionally extol the virtues of the five Panscheel principles of peaceful coexistence. From November 1957 to July 1958, Laos was governed by a coalition that included two members of the Communist Neo Lao Hak Sat (NLHS), the political arm of the Pathet Lao. The Royal army and right wing political factions opposed the coalition, removed it from power and established a new government, one that was avowedly anti-Communist. By 1961, the major cold war protagonists had become so deeply and dangerously involved in Laotian politics that some observers feared and expected a major escalation in the Laotian conflict. Instead of fighting the major powers decided to convene a second Geneva conference. They debated the issues for more than a year and then agreed to neutralize Laos and recreate the coalition government. Today Laos is officially neutral but the fighting continues as it has since 1954. The Pathet Lao have withdrawn from the coalition and they continue to rely on military means for the realization of major objectives. In Alice in Wonderland, the caucus race has a happy ending: all the animals are declared winners. In Laos there have been no winners; the struggle continues and its outcome will affect the future of mainland Southeast Asia.