115
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
[ ། ། [ ། T
C.O.
Reference:--
882
3
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH--NOT TO
You appear to have assented to this arrangement, which you speak of as a temporary measure, in deference to the views of Abdullah. As, however, have had subsequent information from you by telegraph that there is now every reason to believe that Abdullah is seriously implicated in the murder of Mr. Birch, it is clear that he forfeits any authority or any voice in the appointment of a substitute or successor. The arrangement is one which you had recommended on special grounds, and to which I had already assented, and though quite ready to express my approval of the action you took under the circumstances, should wish to know how long this temporary measure is to last, and the mode in which you propose to substitute for it the nomination of Yusuf when the time comes for creating a permanent ruler for Perak in place of Abdullah, a contingency which the progress of events indicate as likely soon to arise.
I have, &c. (Signed)
GENTLEMEN,
No. 123.
CARNARVON.
COLONIAL OFFICE to THE CROWN AGENTS.
Downing Street, November 15, 1876.
I AM directed by the Earl of Carnarvon to transmit to you a copy of a Despatch from Sir W. Jervois relative to the presentation of swords to certain Malay Chiefs, and
am to instruct you to take the necessary steps for the supply of these swords.
$4
Lord Carnarvon has decided that the inscription should only be engraved in English, and should run Presented by command of Her Majesty Queen Victoria to "in recognition of his services to the British Government in Perak, in the year of our "Lord 1875."
I am to instruct you to submit, in the first instance, a design and estimate by Messrs. Wilkinson.
The Crown Agents,
&c.
&c.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
No. 124.
ROBERT G. W. HERBERT.
The EARL OF CARNARVON to GOVERNOR SIR W. F. D. JERVOIS,
(No. 262.)
SIR,
K.C.M.G., C.B.
*
Downing Street, November 15, 1876.
I HAVE the honour to acquaint you that the proposal made in your Despatch, No. 185, of the 26th of April fast, relative to the presentation of swords to Rajah Mahmood and other Malay Chiefs, in consideration of their gallant and faithful services during the recent operations in Perak, has met with the Queen's approval, and the Crown Agents have received instructions to proceed with the execution of the order.
I have decided that the word "spontaneous "in the inscription should be omitted, that it should run "Presented by command of Her Majesty, &c., in the year of our "Lord 1875."
I have also, after some hesitation, decided to omit the inscription in the native character altogether,
This decision I have taken partly in consequence of the enclosed [in original] letter from Bishop McDougall, late of Labuan, who has the reputation of being among the best Malay scholars in this country.
Governor Sir W, Jervols,
&c.
&c.
• No. 11.
I have, &c. (Signed)
CARNARVON.
APPENDIX.
THE MALAY PENINSULA.
THE following is the full text of the Speech delivered by Lord Stanley of Alderley in the House of Lords, on the 10th July 1876, when introducing his Motion on the subject of the Malay Peninsula :—-
BEFORE addressing myself to the subject before the House, I desire to make one or two preliminary observations. I am not going to call in question the acts of any other person than those of the noble Earl the Secretary of State, because he is technically responsible for all that has taken place, and also morally responsible; but I desire to qualify that statement by another. I am not so unreasonable as to expect from the Secretary of State a sufficiently careful reading of all the papers sent from the Straits Settlements, added to all the mass of documents from all the other colonies; but the country has a right to expect that that duty should be efficiently performed by the officials of the Colonial Office.
If I do not say more in exoneration of the noble Earl in this respect, it is to avoid giving him an opening for saying that I am attacking those officials. It also well may be that the staff of the Colonial Office is short-handed for the work it has to do, and I would gladly see the noble Earl take measures to strengthen the staff of his office. I also feel bound in duty to state to your Lordships that which I have had the pleasure of saying in private, that I am grateful to my noble friend, and that I feel the gratitude of the country is due to him for his conduct with regard to Sultan Ismail, and for having preserved the country from the disgrace which would have attached to any precipitate court-martial or mock trial of Sultan Ismail such as some per- sons in the colony were desirous of. I wish now to make an observation on the method of the Colonial Office in the matter of Parliamentary Papers. The Fiji papers were given to your Lordships on the day of the debate; the Gambia papers were delivered only one clear day before the discussion. The Malay Blue Book, No. 1,111, was delivered in the beginning of August last, though it professes to have been presented July 31, 1874. This Blue Book may be called the undiscussed Blue Book, and the noble Earl appears to wish that it should be indisputable, since it was delivered too late for discussion last Session, and February of this year was too early. One of the Blue Books lately delivered-No. 1,320-also professes to have been presented August 6th, 1875, and these Blue Books were only delivered to the other House on the day of a debate there. I will not say that this method of delivering Parliamentary Papers Parliamentary discussion, though it has that effect; but I say it is a strong proof of the intended to prevent procrastination and dilatoriness of the Colonial Office, which have in a great measure contributed to the recent unfortunate events in the Malay Peninsula; and I would ask the noble Earl why he took nearly two months to answer Sir W. Jervois's Despatch. Now, this House has already, in the address in reply to the Speech from the Throne, expressed its regret for the loss of valuable lives during the recent military operations in the Malay Peninsula; and it will no doubt also regret, though in a lesser degree, the expenditure which has been caused by those operations; it will probably also regret that military operations should have taken place which must have had the effect of indis- posing towards us the inhabitants of the Malay Peninsula; and it may be also supposed that it regrets the loss of life amongst the Malays; and if this House regrets all these circumstances, or even if it should confine its regret to the loss of the valuable lives of Her Majesty's troops, then it must also regret the cause of that loss; and that cause will be found to be principally the want of timely attention on the part of the Colonial Office. The Blue Books contain a discussion between the Secretary of State and the Governor of the Straits Settlements, chiefly turning upon the point of whether the Residents appointed by Sir Andrew Clarke had or had not assumed the administration of the countries where they resided. The Governor says they had, and the Secretary of State maintained in his Despatch of December 10, 1875, that the Residents were merely advisers; but I will show your Lordships that all this was clear to the Colonial Office before Sir W. Jervois proceeded to his post, and that the Colonial Department approved of all that the Residents did until Mr. Birch was killed, and a dead body was found at their door, and then they did like the people in the Arabian Nights, who endeavoured to remove the dead Hunchback from their own to another door. I do not wish to exonerate P 2
No. 185. 6 Apri