CO882-(2-3) — Page 196

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

FILITTIC.O.8

882

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

94

16th May, 1862, it seemed to be perfectly clear that such an appointment terminated with the reign of the Sovereign granting it, and must, to be valid, be confirmed by his

successor,

24. The Raja Muda assured me that if he were confirmed and acknowledged as Sultan, he was prepared to ratify the Mantri's appointment as Governor of Laroot.

25. Such had been the vacillating conduct of the Mantri, in first supporting one faction of the Chinese and then the other, while he at one time publicly acknowledged the Raja Muda as his Sovereign, and then turning round, paid homage to and joined the Acting Sultan Ismail, that it might have appeared desirable to exclude him from all the negotiations, and not to ask the Sultan to confirm him in the Governorship of Laroot; but, looking to all the circumstances, I came to the conclusion that I should best secure that lasting peace, which I trusted the Raja Muda's recognition as Sultan would bring about, if I advised the retention of the Mantri in the office he was then holding.

26. I, therefore, at a final meeting of all the Chiefs, proposed the fourteen Articles to be found in the printed paper of engagement dated the 20th January, and these, after a full discussion, were finally accepted by all, and ratified by their signatures and chops.

27. It is perhaps necessary that should state that the Bandahara mentioned in the 2nd Article is a very aged man, and was not present, though requested to be so, but I am assured that the Chiefs present had sufficient authority to act as they did, in the full recognition of Raja Muda Abdullah as Sultan of Perak.

28. By this time both parties had surrendered some arms, and given up several of the row-boats, and I then despatched Her Majesty's ship "Avon," and the "Johore," with Captain Dunlop and Mr. Skinner, to search the rivers. The Report shows their proceed- ings. The leading Chinese, many of them men of large property in Penang, now entered into a bond, by which they bound themselves to keep the peace towards each other and towards the Malays, in a penalty of 50,000 dollars, as well as to observe certain articles set out in the arrangement, and, above all, to entirely complete the disarmament of their

stockades.

29. In the course of the consultation with the Chinese, it appeared that the mines had from time to time been occupied first by one side and then by the other, and that it was necessary, in order to ensure future peaceful working of them (an act on which the material prosperity of the country depends), to consider very carefully the claims of each party,

I found at the same time, incidentally, that women and children had been taken captive, and were even then detained in slavery, while it was alleged, and possibly with truth, that the former were kept for the purposes of prostitution against their will.

30. Common humanity alone demanded my action under such circumstances, and, judging from our past experience of all negotiations with Eastern nations, and seeing the evident desire that existed on all sides for impartial arbitration by British officers of their claims, I decided at once on appointing, with the full consent of the Sultan, a Commission of three officers to settle the question of right to the mines, and to endeavour to discover and restore all the women and children. I have little doubt, from the character of the officers I appointed, of their success, and I expect by the next mail to be able to assure your Lordship that this part of the question is satisfactorily settled, and the more especially as the Chinese agreed to consider the decision of these officers as final.

31. The same experience had shown very clearly that the Malay Princes were by themselves quite unable to deal with the Chinese immigrants, and so strong was this feeling among the Chiefs, that the newly-elected Sultan bad actually foreseen the course pointed out by your Lordship's despatch, and had asked me to appoint British Residents to his States.

32. For reasons which will be more fully explained to your Lordship in a despatch by the next mail, in which I hope to enter fully into the whole question of the country of Perak, from our old and existing Treaties with it up to the present negotiations and action, I consented to the ultimate appointment of a Resident at the Sultan's Court at Perak, and an Assistant Resident at Laroot, and your Lordship will see that I have done so, not only with the full consent of the native Princes, but that the expense of their establishments which would, I am convinced, have been gladly borne, were it necessary, by this Govern- ment, will be a first charge on the revenues of the Perak State.

33. It is perfectly true that, in the despatch I have quoted, your Lordship only desired me to consider, and report to you the advisability of the step I have now taken; but I have shown your Lordship, in a separate despatch of this day's date, what induced me at once to appoint, subject to your approval, an Assistant Resident at Laroot.

34. Your Lordship will perceive that no other appointment than this has been made, and that for the reasons given in that despatch, but in the despatch which will follow

95

next mail, I hope to be able to make other and definite proposals, in the hope that the whole action taken in this matter may meet with the approval of Her Majesty's Government.

35. The present opportunity, when all the Chiefs were present, seemed to me a very favourable one for settling two subjects, already matter of correspondence with your Lordship, viz. :—

1. The Dindings.

2. The Southern Boundary of the Province Wellesley.

And although I can only now very cursorily explain the course I have taken, I will endeavour to do so more fully in the detailed paper which I have promised your Lordship

next mail.

36. The Dindings are situated at a point highly favourable for assisting the Malay Chiefs in controling petty piracy (commanding as they do the entrance to the great and general approach to the country). Their rightful ownership has been, for years, a mooted question; but I have now obtained the consent of the Sultan and his Chiefs, to a rectifica. tion, whereby our long-standing claims on the mainland are conceded, and, by obtaining possession of them, we are thus put in perfect command of the entrance of the river.

37. The Krean boundary, which at present forms the southern boundary of Province Wellesley, has been found extremely inconvenient in both a police and revenue point of view, as being a navigable river, and the evil effects of such a boundary have been repeatedly brought to the notice of this Government, before and after the transfer.

Finding the Sultan and his Chiefs perfectly ready to modify this boundary, and to extend it, so as to give in all the land, the watershed of which is the Krean, or its tribu- taries, I accepted such boundary, to be in future marked out by Commissioners, one to be named by this Government, and one by the Sultan of Perak.

38. I have now, I think, dealt with all the points contained in the new engagement entered into by the Chiefs, but I regret that the early departure of the mail does not onable me to enter more fully into the policy which I recommend to be pursued as regards the duties of the Residents I propose in these States, or as regards the collection of the revenue, but I hope to furnish your Lordship with every information by the next mail, which your Lordship can consider necessary in coming to a conclusion on this

matter.

39. I am perfectly aware, as I have already said, that I have acted beyond my instructions, and that nothing but very urgent circumstances would justify the step I have taken, but I have every confidence that Her Majesty's Government will feel that the circumstances at the time, the utter stoppage of all trade,-the daily loss of life by the piratical attacks on even peaceful traders, and by the fighting of the factions them- selves, and the imminent peril of the disturbances spreading to the Chinese in our own Settlements-justified me in assuming the responsibility I have taken.

Inclosure 1 in No. 69.

I have, &c. (Signed)

A. CLARKE.

Extract of Legislative Council Proceedings, September 9, 1873..

Mr. T. Scott.-Your Excellency, before you left for Penang, said you thought it necessary to proceed there in consequence of rumoured disturbances there, and it would be satisfactory to the public and this Council to know the result.

The Governor.-I have very great pleasure in replying, and stating what happened very briefly. On arriving at Penang, I found the apprehensions that the Lieutenant- Governor entertained that the disturbances going on in Larvot might lead to riots in Penang were well founded. Of the two parties of Chinese who were fighting for the mastery in Laroot, one blockading the interior of the country, finding that those in the interior were receiving supplies through the agency of a neutral body of Chinese un one of the rivers, threatened these Chinese that they would attack and destroy them if they did not cease giving aid to their enemies. The Chinese in question, who were Hokiens, having a large body of friends in Penang, their friends announced publicly that if any attack were made on those in Laroot, they would take life for life from the friends of the attacking party in Penang; and I entertain but little doubt that, but for the active measures taken by the Lieutenant-Governor, in causing the arrest, under an Indian Act, which he found applicable, of certain of the leading Chinamen, who were