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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

ILICO. 882/10

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

| ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

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that these States would at an early date be willing, if not eager, to enter the Federation. All four States were in desperate financial embarrassment, they sadly needed some European officials, and the rank and file of their staff of Malay officials were disgracefully underpaid. It appeared to Sir John that entry into the Federation would be the quick and easy remedy for these ailments. He very soon discovered that the new States, though prepared to be thoroughly loyal to their new suzerain, Great Britain, were nevertheless determined to have nothing whatever to do with the Federated States. When staying with me once in Kedah, he expressed his astonishment to me, and asked me what it all meant. I told him that the Kedah Government was afraid of being compelled to surrender its freedom and to enter the Federation. Sir John recognised that only harm could result to all concerned so long as the Kedah State Council was obsessed by this fear, and took the opportunity, not long afterwards, at a public banquet in Kedah, to announce that Kedah would never be compelled to enter the Federation against its will.

12. The relations with the Federated Malay States of Kedah and Johore, the two most wealthy and progressive of the Unfederated States, are most friendly. Neither State has now any fear of the Federation, and has no reason for any but friendly feelings. Owing to lack of communications, Kelantan and Trengganu are practically isolated from the Federated Malay States. The little State of Perlis (ten miles long by twenty broad, mostly jungle) was once a part of Kedah, and un- doubtedly its destiny is to become again absorbed in it. There is a confidential memorandum on this subject in the High Commissioner's Office.

13. It is submitted that the British policy should be directed to fostering these friendly feelings with the hope that as common interests and powers of mutual assistance come more and more into being and into light, there may naturally and spontaneously be evolved the true federal feeling which in process of time will link all the Malay States into a loose-knit federation, wherein each State can preserve ita separate entity, its dignity and self-respect, whilst combining with all the other States in matters of common interest. It will be of interest to note the matters in which the Malay States-as a whole-have already shown a common interest, or perhaps even the rudiments of a federal feeling.

14. First. The European staffs of the Unfederated States are borrowed from the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Civil Services. The credit for this must be given to Sir John Anderson. He clearly realised what its influence would be, and stood out against much opposition from persons who urged that the incompetence of locally-recruited officers would compel the Unfederated States to join the Federation. Sir Arthur Young consistently followed Sir John's policy. The result is that not only the Civil Service proper, but the staffs of the professional departments (Medical, Education, Survey, Public Works, Police, &c., &c.), are filled with men who have been trained in the Colony or the Federated Malay States and who naturally bring with them the ideas and methods of the places in which they have been trained. It is difficult to over-estimate the value of this as a factor towards the development of a federal feeling. Certainly there is an extraordinary difference between this great homogeneous Public Service extending throughout British Malaya, and the four separate little Government Services that existed (“ in "water-tight compartments") in Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Pahang before federation.

15. Secondly. The Federated Malay States Railway (with its lease over the Johore State Railway) is, fortunately, the only railway in British Malaya.

It ex- tonds throughout Kedah, Perlis and Kelantan, and will be carried into Trengganu. It connects with the Siamese railway system, both on the East and West Coasts of the Peninsula. This railway is a federal factor of considerable importance.

16. Thirdly.-A tendency for the establishment of a Federal Court of Appeal has been carefully fostered. In 1914, Johore expressed a desire for the establishment of an Appellate Court, which would hear appeals from the Supreme Court of Johore. It was arranged that the Court of Appeal should consist of three judges of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States sitting in Johore. The Government of Kedah is now yielding to local public opinion, and is assenting to the establishment of a similar Court of Appeal in Kedah. It is practically certain that as soon as railway communication is established between Kelantan and the Federated Malay States, a similar Court of Appeal will be asked for in Kelantan. Trengganu is still so very backward and so isolated that one cannot foretell when it will be

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ready for a similar Court of Appeal. But, sooner or later, and perhaps at no distant date, the same body of judges will be sitting as a Court of Appeal in the Colony and all the Malay States.

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17. Fourthly.-Military defence is a matter in which all the Malay States should combine. The need for it and the benefits of it are obvious. The "Malay "States Guides was a regiment of which the entire cost was defrayed by the Federated Malay States. When it was decided to disband the Guides, I suggested, in confidential correspondence, that the cost of whatever regiment, or regiments, might be sent to the Malay States, in place of the Guides, should be borne by all the Malay States, Unfederated as well as Federated. It was submitted that it was hardly fair to the Federated States that the whole cost should fall on them, and it was further submitted that, politically, it was desirable that the Rulers of the Malay States, Federated and Unfederated, should realise that in this respect their interests were in common. Nothing was done in the matter. Since then a proposal has been laid before the Federal Government by H.H. the Sultan of Perak for the formation of a Malay regiment or regiments as being preferable to the maintenance in the Federated Malay States of Indian regiments. If anything comes of this proposal, it is very desirable that there should be some broad scheme which should cover the whole of the Malay Peninsula, and not only the Federated States. Similarly, any scheme for the reorganization of the various European Volunteer Corps and for the extension of Malay, Chinese and Indian Volunteer Corps (which are well supported) should cover the whole of the Malay Peninsula.

18. Fifthly. Three Government Departments namely, the Department of Agriculture, the Forest Department and the Fisheries Department stand out as heing, by their nature, departments in which (with necessary allowances for local circumstances) there should be a common policy throughout the Malay Peninsula. They are, in the main, scientific and technical departments. The Government is guided by, even dependent upon, the advice of the Head of the Department. Conten- tious or controversial questions are uncommon. The Advisers to the Governments of the Unfederated States should be given to understand that the general policy of the Director of Agriculture, Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States, the Con- servator of Forests, Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States, and Director of Fisheries, Federated Malay States, should, unless the Unfederated State was prepared to show good reason to the contrary, be followed in every Unfederated State. The difficulty will be to prevent the local Agricultural, Forest or Fisheries officer from serving two masters. It should be understood, therefore, that, whilst the local officer might correspond direct with the Federal Head of Department, yet he would receive no executive instructions otherwise than through the local Government.

19. Sixthly. The Medical Department and the Education Departments should also have a common policy throughout British Malaya. They differ from the three Departmente mentioned in the preceding paragraph in that they deal with highly contentious matters. It is suggested that a means of getting over the difficulty would be the establishment of a "Medical Committee" and an Education Committee " for Malaya. The two committees might comprise experts representative of the Colony and all the Malay States: it would formulate the general policy, and leave local details to local authorities. In this connection I may mention, as an indication of a move in this direction, that, whilst I was General Adviser in Johore, the Johore Government established an Education Board for Johore, and asked that the Director of Education, Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States, might be permitted to serve on the Board.

20. Seventhly.—In any research conducted by the Federated Malay States Government (e.g., Rubber, Rice, Timber, Medical) the Unfelerated States might be asked to co-operate, or at least to make a contribution towards the cost.

21. There is, I think, nothing to be gained by carrying this list any further. All that is aimed at is the barest indication of the outline of a policy. I am keenly aware that what has been written is open to the criticism, first, that it does not show how the new federation is to be made, and, secondly, that apparently it contemplates a federation within a federation. In reply to the second point, I can only say that, so long as the Federated Malay States are constituted as they are at present, this appears to be inevitable. Sir Arthur Young has stated (and I entirely agree) that Johore and Kedah will never join the Federation without compulsion; and Kedah has Sir John Anderson's promise that compulsion will never be used. All that seems to

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