חזתילן
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
882
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Extracts from a
letter of Mr. J.
ment Translator, 1819,
138
with Perak, in which the out-lying Settlement on the Dinding Island might be exchanged for a portion of the territory adjoining the southern boundary of Province Wellesley." No further steps have since been taken in the matter.
The following are the letters referred to :—
1. "Island of Pangkor near the Dindings."
2. "It is not only on Pulo Pangkor that tin may be procured; discoveries have been Anderson, Govern made on the Dindings of several mines; the principal are Teluk Sera, Pundit, Sungei Galem, Sebit, Teluk Serangei, Batu Undan, Bukit Jugot, and the adjoining islands of Pulo Kalta and Pulo Tallang "-(of the above places, Teluk Serangei and Batu Undan are on the north bank of the Dindings; while Pulo Katta is a small island close to the coast not very far from the mouth of the Perak river, aud Pulo Tallang is another small island' close to the coast, a little to the north of the mouth of the Dinding river).
Colonel Man
(formerly Resident
Councillor of Penang), 1867.
Treaty with Salangore, 1825.
1870.
Complaint of Sultan
of Balangore.
T. D). Udio's request fer a Go- vernment officer, 1871.
3. "The island (Pangkor) is said to be nominally held by the King of Salangore, but it is the intention of Kedah to demand its restoration, being considered a dependency of Perak (which acknowledged itself a tributary of Kedah), and the Bandahara of Perak assured me that the King of Kedah would make a grant of it to the honourable Company as a check to pirates, and for security of his possessions in that quarter."
4. Colonel Man, a former Resident Councillor at Penang, alluding to the Treaty of 1826, remarks on the Dinding question: "The Raja of Perak surrendered Pulo Dinding, Pangkor Laut, and all the islands belonging to him to the British Government, as he could not restrain the pirates who infested them."
(None of the Pangkor group can afford a hiding place to pirates, but it has been shown within the last few months how perfectly the islands formed by the delta of the Dinding river can do so.)
2. Bernam.
The River Bernam question is a boundary dispute between Perak and Salangore, which does not directly affect the English Government except through the Treaty with Salangore of 1825. By this Treaty the Company made itself responsible for the following settlement, in the IInd Article,-"From the date of this engagement, and for the time to come, the established boundary between the States of Perak and Salangore shall be the River Bernam." The necessity for such a settlement proves the dispute to be one of long standing. When Perak and Salangore first became separate States bearing these names is not known; but it is supposed that the whole territory comprised in both was in former times tributary to the old Kingdom of Johore, and there is evidence that the Chief of Perak was also the immediate Lord of the territories lying between his own State and Malacca. It is probable that until recent times there was no such integral State as that now called Salangore, of all existing names on the west coast of the Peninsula, it alone is not found in the Malay Annals, or other native records; and it has been plausibly suggested that the present Salangore is an extension achieved by the Bugis colonists of the ancient State of Kalang (Klang), the name itself being a mere corruption.
It naturally happened that the boundary dividing it from Perak was found to be very ill-defined, and the settlement provided by the Treaty of 1825 had little weight. Salangore, or to speak precisely the immediate Chief of the river, continued to claim authority over both banks of the Bernam. The River Runcup, a few miles to the north, is given as the boundary (overlooking the Treaty) in Newbold's work on the Straits of Malacca (1839). There seems to have been no correspondence on this question until January 1870, when the Sultan of Perak wrote to the Lieutenant-Governor of Penang complaining that the Sultan of Salangore had taken possession or allowed some of his people to take possession of the land adjoining the River Bernam, on the Perak side, and requesting the Governor's assistance. Letters were accordingly written on the 23rd March to the Sultan of Perak, stating the matter would be considered, and to the Sultan of Salangore, pointing out that this invasion, if true, was contrary to the terms of the Treaty of 1825. Here this correspondence ended. On 5th October, 1871, Tunku Dia Udia, the Viceroy of Salangore, wrote to point out that there was no accurate knowledge of the Salangore boundaries, and that the people had forgotten the Treaty of 1825, and recommending that it should be renewed, an officer being selected by Government to assist in settling the boundaries. The proposition was referred to the Secretary of State, and on the 22nd June, 1872, Tunku Dia Udin was informed that Sir Harry Ord would attend to the matter on his return.
The present Chief is Raja Hitam, a partisan of Mahdi's opposed to Tunku Dia Udin. No European official has yet visited him, but is it believed he rules the few Malays on both banks of the river. Both Raja and Ryots own nominal allegiance to the Sultan of
139
Salangore, but in a letter to the Government Raja Hitam professes independence of all the September 16, 1872. Sultan's relations, and of his Viceroy Tunku Dia Udin. The River Beruan is apparently looked upon as one of the strongholds in the northern part of Salangore. It was there that Raja Mahdi took refuge when Her Majesty's ship "Rinaldo" dislodged his party from the Salangore forts, and, recently when Tunku Dia Udin turned them out again, their leader Raja Asal fled there. In Tunku Dia Udin's last letter reporting this success, he T. D. Udin to announced his intention of following Raja Asal and ́attacking Sungei Bernam, but nothing Colonial Secretary, has since been heard of this project.
November 8, 1873.
It is easy to see how the matter stands. Raja Hitam, with or without the Sultan's sanction, is regarded as Chief by the inhabitants of both banks of the river, and collects whatever revenue is to be got from them. He must, however, continue to acknowledge one of the two Sultans as Suzerain, and naturally prefers the Sultan of Salangore, his kinsman, who lives at a greater distance, and is probably less disposed to claim all the tribute due to him. But this, so far as concerns the north bank, conflicts with the Treaty of 1825.
The River Bernam derives its importance from the fact of its forming a sort of neutral ground between two countries, which are both in an unsettled condition. In the Governor's instructions to Captain the Honourable A. Denison, Her Majesty's ship "Zebra." upon her visit to Penang (4th April, 1873), his Excellency suggested that "whoever is found exercising any authority there, may properly be informed that the Government disapproves of any portion of the Perak territories being made the starting point of expeditions against the neighbouring State."
3. Perak Succession.
The Commission on native affairs already referred to made its Report on the 19th May, 1871, and the following sentence clearly anticipated the troubles which ensued on Sultan Ali's death (25th May, 1871):-"The power usurped by the Raja Muda is likely very shortly to bring about a revolution, and it appears merely a question which side Laroot will take to decide who shall continue the reigning power."
The usurpation here referred to occurred in the latter part of 1870. The Raja Muda granted concessions of land to Mr. Bacon and others on the south bank of the Krean, and attempted to justify this by producing letters of authority with the Sultan's chop. The Sultan, however, wrote to deny that he had given his assent to such proceedings, and asserted, on the contrary, that they had been carried out directly against his wishes.
1870.
1871.
The first official notice of the death of the late Sultan Ali (25th May, 1871) was the letter of the Raja Bandahara of the 29th June, informing the Lieutenant-Governor of Bandahara's elec Penang that he had been formerly elected successor on the 28th June, and had confirmed tion, June 28. all the appointments made by his predecessor. To this the Lieutenant-Governor replied on the 30th July with congratulations, addressing the letter in the customary way to the Sultan of Perak, and on the 31st July reported to Government "that the Rajah Bandahara had been elected over the head of the Rajah Muda."
With this the correspondence ended, and until shortly before the first Chinese faction fight broke out in Laroot (12th February 1872), nothing transpired to show that dissatisfaction was felt with the new state of things.
1872.
On the 22nd January, three of the second rank officers of Perak wrote to Tunku Dia Raja Muda protesta, Udin requesting him to address the English Government in support of Rajah Muda's January 28. claims to succeed Sultan Ali. On the following day Rajah Muda wrote himself to the same effect, adding that a plot had been formed between Rajah Bandahara (the de facto Sultan) and Tunku Dia Udin's antagonists, Syed Mashor and Rajah Daud (who eloped with his Rajah Muda's wife in May 1871). Finding that no result ensued, on the 21st February the Rajah Muda addressed a letter to the Governor, which, besides his own seal, bore the seals of four of the officers of the second rank the Muntri Delapan." With this letter ready written be left Bukit Guntar (River Perak), and accompained or, as it has been said, instigated by the Mr. Bacon above-mentioned, proceeded to the River Krean, There the Muntri of Laroot met him with his steamer, and towed his boat, apparently by his wish, to Laroot; this was reported to the Lieutenant-Governor by the police on the 24th April.
On the 25th April Mr. Irving arrived in the Laroot river, and was visited both by Rajah Muda and the Muntri. In the course of the next two months, two other visits were made to this river by Mr. Irving, who bore important letters to and from the Governor on one side, and Rajali Muda, the Muatri, and Tumonggong, on the other. At this date not a single letter had come from the Bandahara bimself since that reporting his election. The drift of this correspondence was to urge, on the part of the Government, a conference