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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.

882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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2. I approve of the arrangement made by you for the presence of two British Officers at the trial, which, so far as I am able to judge from the depositions, appears to have been conducted with patience and moderation, and with every desire to elicit all the evidence relating to the lamentable event under inquiry.

3. I should be glad to learn what steps the Sultan Abdullah is taking, and what facilities he possesses for enforcing the commuted sentence of penal servitude for life, which has to be carried out in the case of Se Gondah and Ngah Abmat. I shali probably receive a Report from you shortly on this point, and it is perhaps hardly necessary to impress upon you the necessity of taking precautions against any laxity on the part of the native Authorities which might defeat the ends of justice.

4. I have no reason to doubt the propriety of the course which you adopted, with the advice of your Council, in advising the Sultan Abdullah to spare the lives of these two men, but every care must be taken that their punishment should be as public and well known as the outrage which was perpetrated by them and their accomplices.

I have, &c. (Signed)

No. 77.

COLONIAL OFFICE to INDIA OFFICE,

CARNARVON.

Downing Street, May 19, 1876.

SIB,

I AM directed by the Earl of Carnarvon to transmit to you, to be laid before the Marquis of Salisbury, an extract of a recent Despatch from the Governor of the Straits Settlements relative to the expenditure incurred in connexion with the recent military operations in the Malay Peninsula, and I am to state that, as his Lordship is extremely anxious to come to an early settlement with the Lords of the Treasury as to the apportionment between Imperial and Colonial Funds of the cost of the expedition, be would be much obliged if the Marquis of Salisbury would cause a communication to be addressed to the Government of India requesting them to furnish at as early a date as possible an account of the advances which have been made from Indian Funds, and of which the Government of India expect the reimbursement to the Indian Exchequer.

I have, &c. (Signed)

The Under Secretary of State,

India Office.

No. 78.

COLONIAL OFFICE to TREASURY.

R. H. MEADE,

SIR,

Downing Street, May 19, 1876. I am directed by the Earl of Carnarvon to transmit to you, to be laid before the Lords of the Treasury, copies of correspondence with the War Office and the Governor of the Straits Settlements relative to the expenditure incurred in connexion with the recent disturbances in the Malay Peninsula,

Their Lordships will perceive from Lord Carnarvon's Despatch of the 4th of February last the general plan of apportionment which had suggested itself to his Lordship, and from Sir W. Jervois's reply that there is not at present sufficient information to enable him to make any definite proposals as to the provision of the funds; but Lord Carnar- von is of opinion that, although it is now premature to attempt to discuss the subject, it may be useful to their Lordships to have this correspondence in its present stage before them.

accounts.

The Marquis of Salisbury will be requested to expedite the settlement of the Indian

I have, &c. (Signed)

The Secretary, Treasury.

• No.

ROBERT G. W. HERBERT.

89

No. 79.

The EARL OF CARNARVON to GOVERNOR SIR W. JERVOIS, K.C.M.G., C.B.

(No. 125.)

Downing Street, May 20, 1876.

SIB,

I HAVE the bonour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 159 of the. 8th of April last.*

was glad to learn from your telegram of the 1st of April+ that the precautions taken for the safe custody and care of the Ex-Sultan Ismail by the Rajah of Johore were in the opinion of yourself and your Council sufficient for this purpose, and from your present Despatch I see no reason to doubt that this is the case. I assume, however, that there is nothing in the arrangements which will interfere with any other course which it become necessary to take in regard to him should the inquiry-show him to have been concerned in the murder of Mr. Birch,

3. I request you will inform me what stage the inquiry has now reached.

may

4. I will communicate further with you before long with reference to your suggestion that steps should be taken for enabling the Rajah of Quedah to assume the title of Sultan. It is a question that requires some consideration.

I have, &c. (Signed)

Governor Sir W. Jervois.

No. 80.

CARNARVON,

The EARL OF CARNARVON to GOVERNOR SIR W. JERVOIS, K.C.M.G., C.B.

(No. 127.)

SIB,

Downing Street, May 20, 1876. In my Despatch No. 218 of the 10th of December, while inviting explanations from you on various points which seemed to me to require them, I intimated that I would defer pronouncing any final decision on the course of action which you took with respect to the affairs of Perak in October last.

2. I am now in receipt of your reply, being your Despatch No. 62 of the 10th of February last. I could have wished on all grounds to avoid, the necessity of further pursuing the question of your conduct in relation to these transactions; but it seems to me that I can hardly allow much of this last communication from you to remain unanswered. I will make no comment on the general tone and language of your despatch, which in an unusual manner reflects on the justice and fairness of my decision, because I am quite content that it should be judged by the plain facts of the case, and because I desire to leave every possible freedom of expression to an officer who, however mistakenly, conceives himself to have been subjected to undeserved censure. I shall simply allude, as briefly as the subject admits, to some of the principal points in your despatch which, if unanswered, would be perhaps open to misconception.

3. The matters treated of in this correspondence may be conveniently divided under three heads :--

(A.) The condition of affairs in Perak from the time of the Pangkore Treaty in January 1874 up to October 1875.

(B.) The nature of the action taken by you at the latter date.

(C.) The future policy of the British Government with reference to Perak and the Malay Peninsula.

33, 34.

Pars. 46-49.

4. The representations made by you under these three heads may be thus summarised:- (A.) That there were practically two Sultans in Perak, of whom the one not recognized País. 37, 39, by our Government, Ismail, was acknowledged throughout the greater part of the country, while the other, Abdullah, was the weaker of the two and powerless to act; that there were besides a number of powerful minor chiefs, practically independent in their districts; that owing to the absence of an efficient central authority and the impracticable character of Abdullah, it would have been impossible in any case for the Resident accredited to him to confine himself to advising and assisting; but that the Residents in Perak, as well Park. 9 and 11. as in Salangore and Sungie Ujong, have practically been Administrators of the Govern ment; and that this was contemplated by, and was the logical sequence of, the Pangkore Treaty, as had been understood at the Colonial Office.

78.

(B.) That the action taken by you with respect to the Proclamations issued in October Farm. 41 and was but a slight modification of the policy already approved and commended, and that it was not to this change of policy that Mr. Birch's murder and other recent events could Pars. 77 and be attributed.

78.

38387a.

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