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FABLIC

RECORD OFFICE

ili

Reference -

C.O.882/12

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BF REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOI TO

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have in the same telegram asked your authority to issue thereafter a communiqué to the local Press as follows:-

"His Excellency the High Commissioner has received from the Right Honour- able the Secretary of State for the Colonies a telegram announcing that Brigadier- General Sir Samuel Wilson, Permanent Under-Secretary of State, will shortly pay a visit to Malaya for the purpose of studying local conditions and discussing them with the High Commissioner and the Rulers of the Malay States, in order that His Majesty's Government may have the fullest information at first hand of all aspects of the present situation.

up.

7. On questions of detail and method I gladly await the visit of Sir Samuel Wilson, which will give me an opportunity of discussing with him certain difficulties and problems which have arisen and were naturally bound to arise. Pending his arrival nothing more will be done to commit His Majesty's, or indeed the local, Government to this or that particular phase of the policy. You ask me in your telegram under reply to send you reports from every department in which a measure of decentralization is proposed. I am already considering certain representations which have been made to me by the Heads of the Forestry, Electrical and Agricultural Departments which will be submitted to you with my recommendations in due course. I have emphasized in all my state- ments concerning decentralization the danger of haste, and I do not propose to call for the further reports for which you have asked until certain points at present under inquiry have been cleared The adjustment of departmental organization to political necessity requires the most careful consideration in the case of each department. and the less change made the better: I do not therefore wish to precipitate the preparation of reports which might well be based on incorrect ideas of the nature or extent of the changes required. Time must be allowed for the fullest possible consultation with each Departmental Head before a cut-and-dried scheme can be evolved or reported on. 8. In your telegram No. 65 of the 22nd April, you have referred me to Sir L. Guillemard's address to Federal Council on the 28th September, 1926, and to Sir Hugh I have Clifford's Confidential despatch to Mr. Amery, dated 20th August, 1927.* studied both these documents with the greatest care. As regards the former I conclude that the strength of local opposition, which Sir L. Guillemard encountered, led him in 1926 to modify somewhat his opinion as to the measure of reform which it would be practicable to effect; but there is no doubt that he said to the Rulers and Residents of the Federated Malay States on the 22nd March, 1925: "The portion of the Treaty of Federation which must be eventually repealed is the portion which sets up between Your Highnesses' Residents and the High Commissioner an intermediary who has wide executive powers and is the Residents' senior officer." In that statement the Rulers and Residents concurred. Sir Laurence also said to the Federal Council on the 14th December, 1925: "I am convinced that the only effective decentralization in the Federated States and the only cure for the dissatisfaction of their Rulers lie in such gradual devolution of the Chief Secretary's powers to State Councils, Residents, and, if necessary, to Federal Heads of Departments as will in effect amount to abolition of the office of Chief Secretary as at present constituted." Sir Laurence, moreover, wrote in his Secret despatch, dated 21st October, 1924,† to your predecessor: "There will have to be one more Chief Secretary after the present holder (i.e., Sir G. Maxwell), but he should be the last." It seems evident, therefore, that the original policy of Sir L. Guillemard with respect to the post of Chief Secretary did not differ from mine, but that he found himself unable to carry out his full scheme and was prepared in the circum- stances to be content with something less. I cannot, however, profess to understand at all clearly what Sir Laurence intended to convey to the Federal Council in his speech of the 28th September, 1926.

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9. It has been a great grief to me that the tragic circumstances in which Sir Hugh Clifford retired made it impossible for me to discuss Malayan problems with him, and in particular to ascertain his views concerning decentralization, i indeed he had definitely formulated them. But I draw your special attention to the fact that in the second paragraph of his Confidential despatch of the 20th August, 1927, to which you have referred me, Sir Hugh wrote of the scheme of devolution " as being "the accepted policy of this Government." How a strong Chief Secretary could fit into a scheme of devolution, let alone a scheme of pan-Malayan federation, Sir Hugh has nowhere explained; and the correspondence which ensued was concerned entirely with questions of titles, salutes, and ceremonies, and throws no light on constitutional ques- tions. The attitude of Sir Hugh Clifford towards the Malay Rulers is, however, clearly

* C. 50270/27 [No. 1]; not printed.

† No. 12 in Eastern No. 142.

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stated in his address to the Federal Council, locally known as the Monarchies Speech, to which I have referred you in the seventh paragraph of my Confidential despatch, dated the 23rd March, 1932.*

10. It must not be overlooked that the existence of

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*

Mohammedan Monarchies

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in Malaya is not an anachronism; but that the Rulers are a very necessary between us and premature democratic developments such as have taken place in other parts of the East, and also (as Sir Gilbert Grindle pointed out at the Colonial Office Conference concerning decentralization, on the 16th March, 1931) Government and the Chinese." As you are aware, from my Straits Settlements despatch a buffer between Confidential (2), dated 31st December, 1931,† the Straits Chinese British Association of Singapore, Penang, and Malacca has petitioned me that in each Settlement the privilege of electing an additional Chinese member to the Legislative Council may be accorded to the Straits-born Chinese through the medium of the Straits Chinese British Association, that a Chinese member might be appointed to the Executive Council, and that the constitution of the Legislative Council might be so enlarged as to provide for an unofficial majority. I have been unable to accede to any of the requests made by this Association, but it is evident that political agitation is beginning among the Chinese communities resident in this Peninsula, and it will certainly spread from the Colony to the Malay States. The only adequate means of resisting such agitation will, in my opinion, be to restore to the Rulers of the Federated Malay States and their State Councils power as great as that now enjoyed by the Rulers of the Unfederated Malay States and their Councils. The existing bureaucratic amalgamation which constitutes the Government of the Federated Malay States, and the present composition and powers of the Federal Council inevitably invite agitation for democratization of the country, for additional unofficial representation, and for an official majority. Such requests could not possibly be granted in Malaya without great political danger.

11. In your telegram under reply, you express doubt as to the general wisdom of making large changes in the administrative machinery at a time when the commerce and industry of the Federated Malay States are at a low ebb, and when the energies and capacity of our ablest officers will be fully taxed in dealing with urgent questions of immediate importance. This doubt did not escape the consideration of myself and my advisers, and at the Sri Menanti Durbar I said: We are at the moment in the deep

shadow of an unprecedented world-wide trade depression, and 1 shall probably be criticised by some for introducing at this juncture what they will term the element of political unrest.' But I maintain the exact contrary. I contend that to-day we are laying the foundation of a Malayan solidarity which has never been achieved before, and that Your Highnesses have a right to expect that your very proper representations in the matter of decentralization should receive consideration now. has deepened in me the view that slump conditions must be met by retrenchment and Further reflection ought not to be regarded as a reason for delaying decentralization. On the contrary, as you are aware, in some departments, such as the Public Works Department and the Medical Department, retrenchment has actually facilitated decentralization.

12 I am posting this despatch by air mail, and I shall send a duplicate of it by ocean mail.

I have, &c.,

C. CLEMENTI,

High Commissioner.

Enclosure in No. 32.

OPENING ADDRESS AT THE PEKAN DURBAR.

YOUR HIGHNESSES AND GENTLEMEN,

This is the first occasion on which a Durbar has been held in Pekan, and you will, I am sure, wish that at its inception I should convey to His Highness the Sultan of Pahang our warm thanks for receiving us with such hospitality, and for having made such convenient arrangements both for our comfort, while we are his guests at Pekan, and for the conduct of our official proceedings.

You will, I think, also wish me to express to His Highness our sincere sympathy with the Malays of Pahang in the distress caused by the floods which afflicted this State at the beginning of the year. It is very satisfactory to know that the energy displayed by the officers of the State of Pahang has been successful in mitigating the sufferings

* No. 26.

† C. 92004/32 [No. 3]: not printed.

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