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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

Inclosure 2 in No. 93.

(B.)

Memorandum relative to the Affairs of Perak, with reference to a Visit to that Country in April and May, 1872, and subsequent Occurrences up to the 15th June, 1872, by Mr. C. J. Irving.

1. I WILL now give an account of my visits to Laroot and to the River Perak. I left Sulangore on Monday, the 22nd of April. The *Pluto" started about 1 o'clock and arrived at Penang about 9 o'clock the following morning, Tuesday, the 23rd, and stayed there till Thursday morning. It had been reported that the Rajali Muda had left Qualla Perak some days previously with the intention of going to Penang, and this subsequently proved to be true; but, as will be seen presently, his project was not carried out. In the course of the Tuesday and Wednesday I made such inquiries as I could in regard to the past and present state of affairs in Perak, and obtained some valuable information, especially from an old man of the name of Datoh Syed, to whom I was introduced by Mr. Skinner, the Police Magistrate of Province Wellesley. The information which I thus gathered, together with the further information that I obtained in the course of the subsequent days of the journey,-supplemented and corrected by what I have learned on subsequent occasions, I shall put into a connected form, further on. It will suffice to say here that so far in the course of my inquiries I found the feeling of those I spoke with to be for the I should state also that most part in favour of the Rajah Bandahara or "Sultan Ismail.” I learned here for the first time that the Rajah Bandahara had in a manner been recognized by the Acting Lieutenant-Governor, Mr. A. N. Birch. On the 29th August last, a letter from the Rajah Bandahara was received announcing his election on the 28th June previously. To this letter the Acting Lieutenant-Governor replied on the following day, addressing the Bandahara with his full title as "Sultan Ismail." The election was reported to the Officer Administering the Government, on the 31st August, with the comment that "the present Sultan was previously the Rajah Bandahara and had been selected over the head of the Rajah Muda who was next in succession.”

2. On the evening of the 24th, a report was brought in by the Police from the Krean, the boundary between Province Wellesley and Perak, that the Rajah Muda with a party of armed boats had been coming from the Qualla Perak with the intention of occupying the Krean district on the Perak side of the river, which is administered by the Tunku Mantri (Rajah of Laroot) on behalf of the Sultan, but that the Tunku Mantri had met the expedition off the mouth of the Laroot river and detained it there,-whether by force or persuasion was not apparent. This story afterwards proved to be true, except that the object of the Rajali Muda's journey was not to take possession of the Krean district; but, as had heard reported at Kallang, to go to Penang and lay his grievances before the Government.

3. Before going on to give an account of my visit to Laroot on the following day, and before entering into the somewhat involved and obscure question of what may be called the "Perak Succession," it will be convenient if I dispose here of one or two points relating to the Laroot district, and to the district lying between Laroot Proper and the Krean, which as I have already said is administered by the Tunku Mantri.*

4. And first, as regards the disturbances among the Chinese tin miners in Laroot Proper. The Laroot river is an inconsiderable stream compared with other rivers on the coast, as the range of mountains which forms the water-shed of the Peninsula at this place approaches close to the coast. The "Pluto" was not able to do more than enter the river, but the small steamers belonging to the Tunku Mantri and others are able to get up to the town, a distance of about two miles. The Tunku Muntri has stockaded positions in the town, he has an armed police force of some 200 ment and two out of the four steamiers that carry the trade between the country and Penang belong to him :-so that the control of the trade is thoroughly in his hands. He levies an export duty on tin of 19 dollars a bhara, equal to about 4,0807. The export of tin to Penang at present is at the rate of about 800 bharas a month, giving him from this source alone a revenue of 182,400 dollars per annum. The mines, or rather "diggins," are situated about ten miles from the town. There is an excellent road all the way. At the time of the riots the number

of

• The title of " Raja of Larut" is a mere English Boubriquet. The Tunku Mantri himself said to me that he Whenever I have used the expression Raja of was not a Raja, but an Officer of State of the Sultan of Perak. Larut in speaking to natives, they have always corrected me, and this in a tone of expostulation, implying that I was not only using a wrong name, but conveying a wrong idea.

At the time of the outbreak of the riots he had only about fifty meni,

Formerly I believe that there was an opium farm, but the Chinese refused, or, at any rate, strongly objected, to subinit to it, and the Tunku Mantri was either unable or did not think it expedient to enforce it.

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Chinese at the mines is supposed to have been from 20,000 to 25,000, of these I believe about 2,000 or 3,000 were Macao men, the remainder being Kbays who were divided. into two branches, the Chan Shiang and the Sin Heng. To what extent the Tunku Mantri was supposed to exercise government over these people I am unable to say. My impression is that, in the main, they governed themselves. At any rate it is clear, that when the disturbances broke out in February last between the rival factions, the Chan Shiang and the Sin Heng,-the Tunku Mantri's Government was quite powerless to put a stop to them. In effect, they did not stop till after the loss estimated at nearly 1,000 lives; one of the parties, the Chan Shiang, was entirely defeated, and driven out of the country, the bulk of the survivors to the number of 9,000 or 10,000 taking refuge at Penang, while the remainder took refuge in Quedah, Perak, and other places. On the victory thus declaring itself, I have been told that the Tunku Mantri, who had previously been a member of the Hysan Kongsee or Secret Society, of which the members chiefly belonged to the defeated party, withdrew from it, and joined the Habsya Kongsee, the members of which were principally Sin Heng men. I will not vouch for the truth of this story, but I am inclined to believe it myself. I saw no reason to suspect my informant of a desire to mislead me, and besides it is not the first time I have heard of Malay Rajahs becoming members of Chinese Kongsees. If it really obtains, the practice is well worthy of notice, suggestive as it is of the political arrangements that are likely to arise when,-as no doubt will be the case, the immense resources of the Peninsula attract a vast popula- tion of Chinese to the present almost uninhabited territories. However the matter was arranged, there is no doubt that the disorders have ceased, and the trade, which during the riots came entirely to a stop has resumed its old proportions.

5. Another question into which I had to inquire related to the difficulties experienced by the authorities in Province Wellesley in preventing the smuggling of Chandoo from the other side of the Krean: and also in preventing the perpetration of crimes, such as gang- robberies, &c., by persons coming over from the Perak side, and in obtaining the arrest of such persons on their making their escape back into Perak after the perpetration of their offences. There is no doubt that the present state of things is extremely unsatisfactory in this respect and it seems to arise out of the faulty arrangement which has been adopted in this and other cases of drawing the boundary lines between the States along the courses of rivers, instead of along imaginary lines drawn through the uninhabited jungle between the rivers. The population in these countries clings to the rivers, indeed there is scarcely any population except along their banks, so that the frontier lines are in effect drawn right through the centres of population,-very much as if it had been drawn down the High Streets of towns at home, and the "frontier" difficulties which of course are not to be altogether avoided under any circumstances are in this way produced in an extreme form. The remedy I should propose would be to set-back the frontier to a line running eastward from a point half way between the Krean and the next river, the Korrow. If this cannot be arranged, I think that at any rate it should be insisted on that the Colonial Police should have the power of crossing the Krean and making arrests within Perak Territory,— up to a certain limit to be agreed upon. I do not think that there will be much difficulty in bringing about either arrangement. It is a matter in which the Tunku Mantri by his own confession has no interest, as he says that the Krean district forms no part of his own peculiar appanage, but is administered by him solely on behalf of the Sultan. To Sultan Ismail, if he should prove the successful candidate, living as he does far up in the interior, in quite a different part of the country, the matter would no doubt be of very little importance; while if the Raja Muda were to come into power, he would be prepared, I make no doubt, to concede that, or any other matter, to the English Government.

6. As regards the smuggling question considered by itself, by far the most effectual method of meeting the present difficulties would be, and this should be brought about, even if one or other of the above suggestions were carried out to make an arrangement by which the opium farms of Province Wellesley and of the Krean district of Perak should be held by the same person. It will be remembered that at Singapore, so long as the opium farins of Johore and Singapore were held by different persons, it was found impossible to put a stop to smuggling from the Johore side, and that the Singapore farmer was in great danger of being ruined in consequence; but that from the time an agreement was come to, and the farms combined in the hands of a single farm, the illegal operations which gave so much trouble, and which constituted a serious danger to the finances of the Government, came at once to an end. In the present case the matter is on a smaller scale, but the principle is the same and I have no doubt whatever but that if the limits of the farm are extended in the way I have proposed, at the next letting of the farms a considerable enhancement in the price offered may be confidently expected. As I reported, on the 2nd of May last, at present the opium farm of all the Perak districts between Laroot

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