PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.
Reference :-
-882
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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7. Among the points to be settled between the two Departments are--
(1.) That India be relieved from all expense on account of these Colonies, except such as may arise from the custody and maintenance of con- victs, after credit is given for the profits of their
Jabour.
* (11.) The adjustment, between the two Govern- ments, of the terms on which, should the aid of troops of the Indian local army be required, it shall be furnished.
8. There is one other subject to which I would You especially invite your Grace's attention.
will observe that Mr. Blundell, the late Governor of the Straits' Settlements, is of opinion that the sudden transfer of these Dependencies to the im- mediate superintendence of the Imperial Govern- meat may engender some alarm in the minds of the Chinese and Malay population of the Islands. This is merely a conjecture, but it is based upon a long and intimate acquaintance with the character of the people. It may be expedicnt, therefore, if the transfer should be carried into effect, to issue proclamations in the native languages, calculated to give confidence to the minds of the people, by assuring them that they will be deprived of none of the rights and privileges which they enjoyed under the Government of India.
I have, &c. (Signed)
His Grace the Duke of Newcastle,
C. WOOD.
Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Enclosure 1.
Lord Stanley to the Governor-General of India in
Council.
March 1, No. 7 of 1359.
1. Her Majesty's Government having recently had under their consideration the position and cir- cumstances of the Straits Settlements (in which term are included Singapore, Malacca, and Penang, or Prince of Wales' Island), I am anxious to receive the opinion of your Lordship in Council whether any good and sufficient reasons now exist for continuing the administration of these dependencies of the Crown on their present footing, or whether it might not be advantageous to the public interests and to the Set-
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tlements themselves to withdraw them from the control of the Indian Government, and transfer them to the Colonial Office.
2. I inclose a précis which has been prepared, showing in abstract the area, population, revenues, and charges of these Settlements, up to the latest date which has been received, and which I believe to be tolerably correct.
3. In former times, when India was adminis- tered by the East India Company, and when a very intimate connection existed between India and China, it was both a convenient and proper arrange- ment that the administration of the Straits' Settle- ments should be annexed to the Government India.
4. But in later times, and more especially since the extinction of the trading privileges of the East India Company, this connection has gradually diminished, until at length it can scarcely be urged that there are any reasons, geographical, political, or otherwise, why the Straits' Settlements should continue to be governed and controlled from India.
5. On the other hand, however, these Settle- ments have, I believe, become more closely con- nected with China, and in particular with the British Settlement at Hong Kong, a connection which is likely to become still more intimate under the operation of the Treaty recently negotiated by Lord Elgin,
6. Under this change of circumstances, I apprehend also that it will be exceedingly difficult 'for the Government of India in future to select, in India, persons well qualified, by their knowledge of the customs, manners, and language of the Chinese, to administer the affairs of these Settlements, but especially the most important of them, Singapore.
7. It has therefore occurred to me that it may be desirable to treat these Settlements as Colonial Dependencies, distinct from India, either separately or in connection with Hong Kong, the fundamental principle of their transfer to the Colo- nial Office being, that whilst, on the one hand,
all the revenues and levies derived from them shall accompany the tranfer, India, on the other, should be relieved of all existing charges, whe- ther civil, military, or miscellaneous.
8. The only exception to this rule would be the net expense of the convicts deported from India, credit being afforded to India for the profit derived
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