In the last 40 years or so, that British colony has grown from a sleepy port to an economic force to be reckoned with not only in Southeast Asia but also on the worldwide business scene.
Surely he witnessed to fellow prisoners and others on board, including the crew and the soldiers, as well as to people at any of the ports where the ship docked.
The NGO Lalana (Roads in Malagasy) alerted readers to the status of the RN2 highway linking the capital with the main port of Madagascar Toamasina [fr]:
Aboard another ship, a sailor who had visited a Kingdom Hall in the nearby port of Antwerp put up on the wall of the mess hall a banner with the words “Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses” in large letters.
Engineers dredged a section of the shoreline to construct the port and piled up the debris on the beach to protect moored ships from fierce winds from the gulf.