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MARIN

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RECORD OFFICE

Reference -

C.O.882/12

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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I believe that a grave error has been committed in the past by giving out huge continuous areas of land for rubber cultivation and not retaining adequate reserves at intervals for villages, small holdings, and other forms of cultivation. The result is that the larger portion of South and Central Kedah is one large block of rubber, dependent on alien immigrant labour, as there are few accessible villages, whilst in the rest of the State the small-holders find it difficult to eke out their earning by obtaining employment on rubber estates, there being no estates within a reasonable radius of their villages.

Most of the areas of the State which are not planted with rubber have been con- stituted into Malay reservations; if necessary, the Kedah Government is ready to consider excision of suitable blocks for large estates for non-rubber cultivation, the idea being that large estates and areas reserved for small holdings and villages should alternate.

The policy of Malay reservations, which has been developed much more fully in this State than in any other portion of Malaya, is deliberately aimed at the protec- tion of the Malay agriculturalist, and at the exclusion of the invading Chinese agricul- turalist. The greatest persistency and ingenuity is necessary to make this policy effective.

The reserves of State land, especially land suited to the cultivation of rice, are not large; I am opposed to the over-rapid alienation of these reserves and to the immigration of rice cultivators from Java and Sumatra.

The reserve lands will only suffice for the natural expansion of the Kedah Malay 'agriculturalists for a period of twenty-five to thirty years, after that we will be faced with the same land hunger which exists in the Settlement of Malacca.

Employment of Malays.

Sir George Leith, Governor of Penang in 1804, advanced the opinion that the Malays were an idle and treacherous race only fit for cutting down trees, but that fortunately there were very few of them.

Since then the question of how far Malays were suited to regular employment has always been a controversial question, on which rather violent and unbalanced opinions have been advanced on both sides.

When it is considered that the Romans occupied Britain for some 400 years without modifying very much the placid and conservative customs of some of our ancestors, the development of the Malay race during the last fifty years, I think, very remarkable. So long as the Malays are protected on the administrative side from over-rapid Europeanization of their institutions and on the commercial side from Chinese invasions, they are perfectly capable of administering their own States with a minimum of assistance from advisory and technical officers and of developing them- selves the agricultural resources of their own country.

The Malay is not prepared to forgo all the decencies and amenities of life and to toil all day in the pursuit of riches; but he is ready when properly handled to do

a reasonable day's work and to take a very intelligent interest in what he does.

In Kedah the clerical service is restricted to Kedah-born Malays. The Kedah Malay has not yet shown himself as adaptable as the Kelantan Malay in carrying out work for the Public Works Department on roads and buildings, but there is already marked progress in that direction and they are employed largely on road maintenance and the construction of earth roads.

Financial.

In common with the rest of Malaya Kedah has enjoyed until recently a period of exceptional prosperity.

The country has been opened up, main roads and permanent buildings have been constructed entirely out of revenue.

There is no public debt.

There is, at present, a reserve of over five million dollars to the Opium Revenue This is in spite of the Replacement Fund and liquid reserves of over three million. heavy loss of revenue experienced during the recent period of depression.

During the Mohammedan year 1349 corresponding to May, 1930-May, 1931. expenditure exceeded revenue by $2,100,000. During the Mohammedan year 1350

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expenditure exceeded revenue by $540,000. Estimates are now prepared in accord- ance with the Gregorian calendar and the estimates for 1932 show:-

Estimated excess of assets over liabilities

$

3,085,761

Revenue

5,493,667

Expenditure (recurrent)

5,344,395

Surplus

149,272

Expenditure (special)

137,805

Surplus

11,467

Expenditure (Public Works Department

Extraordinary)

227,698

Deficit on the year

216,231

Estimated excess of assets over liabilities, 31st

December, 1932

$2,869,530

I anticipate that the revenue will be somewhat below the estimate but that a large measure of retrenchment will be effected on the expenditure side, and that 1932 will conclude with an absolutely balanced budget.

A particularly healthy feature is that the revenues of the State are now far less dependent on the sales of opium than was formerly the case. The estimated revenue from opium is only $800,000 out of a total estimated revenue of over five millions.

I consider that the rapid adjustment of expenditure to revenue shows the advan- tages which can be gained by a small State which has independent control over its own finances, and which is in a position to make readjustments as required.

The Effect of the Decentralization Proposals in the Federated Malay States on Kedah. The Kedah Government has naturally been keenly interested in the proposals for decentralization, and the suggestions for a greater measure of co-operation between the various political units in Malaya outlined in the Sri Menanti speech of His Excel- lency the Governor. It is unfortunate that these proposais have been the subject of a good deal of ill-informed newspaper comment.

It is absolutely certain that the manner in which the advisory system has been overshadowed in the Federated Malay States by the extension of the Federal as opposed to the State organization has increased the reluctance of the Unfederated Malay States to be included in the Federation in any form.

So long as the present system continues unmodified, there is no prospect of Kedah being willing to modify the position secured by the agreement of 1923, in fact there is a marked opposition to any proposal which would appear to make for greater unity even in those matters in which unity is to be desired.

I believe that this attitude can only be modified by the extension of decentraliza- tion in the Federated Malay States over a period of years. When definite results have been obtained and the organization of the Federated Malay States is more comparable with the State organization in the Unfederated States, there will I think be a natural tendency towards a more logical grouping of the various Malay States.

Any element of compulsion or any precipitate action would, I believe, harden the present opposition; unity can only come from a clear understanding of the advan- tages to be derived and from a conviction that the individuality of the State will be maintained.

I foresee that progress will be along the lines of greater uniformity in those services, which will most clearly benefit by increased co-operation, such as Posts and Telegraphs and Customs.

There will I think be a natural growth of the Malayan spirit, as Malay officers develop a less limited and parochial point of view and begin to feel wider ambitions. There is a well-known Malay proverb-" Katak di-bawa Tempurong "-The frog under a coconut shell, who thought the shell was the roof of the universe.

I see no reason to doubt that when there is unity of language and unity of interests, the preservation of the Malay race against foreign infiltration, the very reasonable and justified local State patriotism will find its place in a wider sense of nationality; then it will be possible to reach a willingly accepted unity without the deadening effect of an enforced uniformity.