CO882-(4-5) — Page 455

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

REPORT

OF THE

JOHORE BOUNDARIES COMMISSION,

Dated 18th February, 1898,

WITH A LETTER FROM THE COLONIAL OFFICE IN REPLY.

4091.

No. 1.

JOHORE BOUNDARY COMMISSIONERS to COLONIAL OFFICE. To the Right Honourable

PAGE.

3

The Secretary of State for the Colonies.

SIB,

7

Colonial Office, February 18, 1898.

HAVING been invited by His Highness the Sultan of Johore to take steps for the settlement of the boundaries between Johore and the States adjacent to it, you desired the four Commissioners whose names are hereto appended to inquire into the whole subject, and report for your consideration the boundaries which they would recommend.

2. It will be convenient to place on record the circumstances and conditions under which this inquiry has been made.

3. The Sultan of Johore, by a Commission under his hand and the State Seal, bearing date the 14th day of December, 1896 (a copy of which is hereto annexed), appointed Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert, G.C.B., and the Dato Sri Amar d'Raja Abdul Rahman, C.M.G., to be His Highness's joint agents and representatives, to lay before the Queen, through Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, His Highness's anxious desire for a speedy settlement of the questions of the boundaries between his State and the Settlement of Malacca, the State of Johol in the Negri Sembilan, and the State of Pahang respectively; and in that Commission His Highness undertook to abide by any decision for a simultaneous settlement of all these boundaries at which you might arrive, provided that his representatives should, after being duly consulted, have voluntarily agreed to such decision.

4. This Commission having been communicated to you, you were pleased to nominate Sir Cecil Clementi Smith, G.C. M.G., and Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham, K.C.M.G., to be Commissioners to represent the Governments of the Straits Settlements and of the Negri Sembilan and Pahang, for the purpose of considering with the Johore Commissioners whether an arrangement of all the boundaries in question, such as you might be advised to adopt as just and equitable to all the parties concerned, could be agreed upon. And you made a proviso (a) that any arrangement which might so be come to should be subject to your approval or disapproval, and (6) that on any points of detail on which the Commissioners might not agree your ruling should be accepted as final.

5. We accordingly held our first meeting at the Colonial Office on the 9th of November last, and, after a prolonged examination during several sittings of the claims and contentions brought forward by each party, and of the evidence or instruments on which

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

5

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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