CO882-10 — Page 526

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference:

C.O.

882/10

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

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

The Un. federated States.

The develop these newly-

ment of

protected

States: a contrast in

policy, and the pre-

26

head of a separate administration. But he did not think it necessary to alter in any degree the powers which the Resident-General had collected into his hands or to provide for their devolution. For this no doubt he had good reasons, but it soon became clear that a mere alteration of title which left to the Chief Secretary to Government intact the administrative powers of the Resident-General was in- sufficient to undo or even arrest the steady progress of over-centralisation in the States themselves. The result is that the Federated States of to-day are not a Federation but an Amalgamation.

11. In another respect Sir John's intentions did not materialise. The creation of the Federal Council by the Agreement dated the 29th of October, 1909, did to some extent answer his hopes of bringing the Rulers into closer touch with the High ('ommissioner, but as time went on, it added a further centralising tendency. The development of that Council robbed the Rulers of even the semblance of independent rule. On it not only had the Resident-General (and afterwards the Chief Secretary) a dominant voice, but the Unofficial Members either never had been or did not remain members of a State Council.

12. In 1909 the Treaty with Siam brought Kedah, Kelantan and Trengganu under British protection, and in 1914 the State of Johore entered into a Treaty which was in main principles the same as the Treaty of Pangkor. The British Advisers, particularly in Johore and Kedah, were dealing with a very different type of Ruler from the type of fifty years ago. They set about their task in a different way, and have never attempted to be anything except "Advisers."

13. The Advisers and their European Staffs, picked men with experience of Government in other parts of Malays to guide them, could and did set out to assist the development of the new States along lines in no wise bureaucratic and for the the States a benefit primarily of the Malays of the State to whose service they were seconded.

servation of

separato

entition.

The ditia- faction in the Federated

States

thereby

intensified.

Three axioma

which erberge from

the above.

14. These States, especially Johore with its proximity to Singapore and Kedah lying opposite to Penang, had been affected by the modern civilisation in the Peninsula, and their inhabitants had long had facilities for education which did not exist in the older States fifty years ago. Every posible appointment was kept for Malays, and the European officers have carried out their task of training them for all branches of Government service in their States so faithfully that, excluding the few minor appointments in which interpretation into a Chinese or Indian language necessitates the employment of aliens, practically the only Government servants in the Unfederated States, except the European officers seconded for service in them, are Malays.

15. As a result of this policy, British protection has produced in the Unfederated States a very different form of Government from that in the Federated. The Ruler of the former occupies a position of authority in the Goverr ment of his State, his State Council, under the guidance of European Advisers, has developed into a body possessed of both power and dignity, and the Malay Chiefs and peasants alike have been able from the first to look to a career in Government service unhandicapped by the competition of other Asiatics with longer access to channels of education. The Ruler's relations with the High Commissioner, the one man in authority over him, is direct. The only door between His Highness' Adviser and the High Commissioner is the open door of the latter's Secretariat, and the Secretary to the High Commissioner has no executive power and is junior to all Advisors. The importance of this last point it is impossible to over-emphasize.

16. The chagrin with which the Malays of the Federated States regard the more independent constitutions enjoyed by the new Protected States has never received enough consideration. Their invidious position was not clearly recognised by them so long as they remained the only Malay States under our protection.

17. Three points therefore emerge :----

(a) The Malay Rulers, while recognising the need for co-ordination among all the units of Malaya, will never consent to the amalgamation of their States with the Colony.

(b) The Rulers of the Unfederated Malay States will never willingly enter the present Federation.

(c) The Rulers of the Federated States would welcome any policy loosening the bonda of the present Federation.

27

themselves.

18. Previous policy has centred round a vague hope that some inducement might The real turn up to persuade the Unfederated Malay States to join the Federation. The need is central fact of the political difficulty, namely, the unpopularity of the Federal for the

new policy Government, has only lately been recognised with any sympathy for the Malay Federated attitude.

Malay States 19. Decentralisation is now the declared policy of the Government of the Present Federated Malay States, and some progress has been made in carrying out that efforts are in

policy. The despatches noted in the margin show the action direction, the right (To the Colonial (oo) which has been taken on the lines of increasing the authority but insuffi- (No. 46 of 30.1 23.) (No. 698 of 23.12 231) Seoretary. Further important developments of the policy are

of the Residents and delegating powers vested in the Chief cient (No. 124 of 29.2.24.†) (No. 574 of 18.10.245.) the removal of items from the Federal to the State Estimates, and the increase of the control of State Councils over State expenditure, and changes with this object in view are gradually being introduced. In fitting Malays for service in their own country, the policy of Government is working along liberal lines. But these changes alone will never give to the Rulers, the Councils and the Residents the same measure of power and dignity as are enjoyed by their counterparts in the Unfederated States.

III. How to remove the Restrictions.

tute a non-

20. I have pointed out above that it is impossible to over-emphasize the First importance of the fact that the officer who is the connecting link between the abolish the Unfederated States and the High Commissioner is an officer with no executive power of Chief

appointment and junior in status to every Adviser. I am convinced that the only effective Secretary decentralisation in the Federated States and the only cure for the dissatisfaction of and substi their Rulers lie in such devolution of the Chief Secretary's powers to State Councils, executive Residents, and, if necessary, to Federal Heads of Departments, as will in fact abolish officer junior the appointment and substitute for it an office analagous to that of the Secretary to to every the High Commissioner for the Unfederated States. This change would gratify the Resident. Raders by removing an officer who claims precedence over them, loosen the knot of the existing close Federation, and prepare the way for a wider loose-knit union of all the Malay States. A frank and public explanation of the end and the means of attaining it would I am sure win the cordial co-operation of Rulers and State Councils and would, I hope, finally extinguish all misrepresentations and misunderstandings. There will have to be one more Chief Secretary after the present holder, but ne should be the last.

sidered.

21. It will be contended by some that this change would be a retrograde step Arguments involving loss of efficiency, the division of authority, and inconvenience to commercial contra non- interests. This may be to some extent the case at first. I feel sure that matters will soon right themselves, but in any case the position must be faced. of devolution to the Rulers, State Councils and Residents the Government is already To the policy committed. And even if it is found necessary (which may not be the case) under the new scheme to give to Heads of other than purely technical Departments some executive powers in addition to their normal advisory functions, they will still be under the close aurveillance of senior Residents and their Secretariats, who will be no lesa zealous for efficiency in their States than a Chief Secretary covering the whole range of administration of the Federation.

C

22. It will be argued that the proposed change will mean the transfer to Singapore" of the Government of the Federated Malay States, with results prejudicial to those States. The vague anxieties felt in this respect will in some minds take the shape of a fear that, with the Chief Secretary removed, the High Commissioner will have no one able effectively to champion to him the cause of the Federated States in onse of a clash of interests with the Colony, and that the cause of the Colony, with an officer of the standing of the Colonial Secretary to champion it, will therefore get a better hearing. My answer to this is that Sir John Anderson's policy has definitely made the High Commissioner the responsible Head of the Government of the Federated Malay States, and that it is his duty, in that capacity, to look at Federated Malay States' matters from a Federated Malay States point of view. I have throughout my term of office lost no opportunity of emphasising this position and have made it a part of my policy to divide the year between the Colony, the Federated and the Unfederated States. The High Commissioner will not lose his responsibility by the scheme I recommend, and in all matters of importance the

↑ No. 6.

15212/24: not printed. ↑ 63850/24: not printed.

• No. 4.