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PUBLIC

RECORD OFFICE

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Reference -

C.O.882/12

| COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

BE

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON:

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE

REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

13345/3/33 [No. 2].

160

No. 73.

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

FEDERATED MALAY STATES.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Confidential.)

(Received 10th August, 1933.)

[Answered by No. 74.]

SIR,

"Bel Retiro," Penang Hill, 14th July, 1933. I HAVE the honour to refer to my confidential Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States despatch dated 29th October, 1931, in which I put forward proposals for the reorganization of the Medical and Health Services of Malaya, and to your confidential Federated Malay States and Straits Settlements despatch dated 19th July, 1932, in which you intimated your intention to defer your decision until after Sir Samuel Wilson's visit to Malaya. Your telegram No. 97 dated 7th June, 1933,‡ informed me that you proposed to announce in the House of Commons the approval by His Majesty's Government of Sir Samuel Wilson's recommnendations.

2. Amongst the measures which Sir Samuel Wilson, in Chapter IX of his Report, recommends should be carried out during the first stage of decentralisation is the transfer to State control of the Medical Department in the Federated Malay States. From Section (ii) of Appendix V of the Report it appears that this transfer involves the abolition of the post of Principal Medical Officer, Federated Malay States, and the creation of the appointment of Director of Medical and Health Services, Straits Settle- ments, and Adviser on Medical and Health Services, Malay States. This change was in fact brought into effect on 1st January, 1932, since which date the Director of Medical and Health Services, Straits Settlements, has carried out the duties of Director of Medical and Health Services, Straits Settlements, and Adviser on Medical and Health Services, Malay States.

3. The creation of this new post I now presume to have been sanctioned and I ask for your approval of the appointment thereto, with effect from 1st January, 1932, of Dr. C. J. Wilson, the officer recommended in my despatch referred to above.

4. The salary which I have recommended for this post is $1,350 a month, but I have recently found it necessary to appoint a small committee consisting of Mr. W. S. Gibson (Chairman), Mr. W. A. Fell, an Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council, representing the Colony, and Colonel Cecil Rae, an Unofficial Member of the Federal Council, representing the Federated Malay States, to consider the salaries attaching It may to certain appointments. A copy of the terms of references is enclosed. be necessary, after consideration of the report of this committee, to recommend another figure. For the present, however, I ask that $1,350 a month be approved provisionally as the salary of this appointment.

I have, &c.,

No. 74.

13345/3/33 [No. 3].

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

FEDERATED MALAY STATES.

C. CLEMENTI,

Governor.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.

(Confidential.)

Downing Street, 29th August, 1933.

SIE.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatches Confidential|| and Confidential (2)¶ of 14th July, 1933, regarding the reorganization of the Medical and Health Services and of the Public Works Departments of Malaya, and to inform you that I approve the abolition of the posts of Principal Medical Officer, and of Director of Public Works, Federated Malay States, and the creation of the posts of

‡ 13345/33 [No. 6]: not printed. § Not printed.

* No. 69.

† No. 72. :|| No. 73.

¶ No. 60.

161

"Director of Medical and Health Services, Straits Settlements, and Adviser on Medical and Health Services, Malay States," and of " Director of Public Works, Straits Settle- ments, and Adviser on Public Works, Malay States." I approve also of the two latter posts provisionally carrying the salary of $1,350 per mensem, this figure to be subject to my confirmation after I have received your recommendations on the Report of the Committee, presided over by Mr. W. 3. Gibson, which is inquiring into the remunera- tion of these and certain other offices.

2. In addition, I approve the appointments of Dr. C. J. Wilson and Mr. G. Sturrock respectively to these two posts with effect from the 1st of January, 1932.

I have, &c.,

P. CUNLIFFE-LISTER.

XIII. PROPOSALS FOR JUDICIAL REORGANIZATION IN MALAYA.

C. 92068/32 [No. 1]..

SIR,

(No. 58.)

No. 75.

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

MALAY STATES.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Received 29th February, 1932. [Answered by No. 78.]

Government House, Singapore, 4th February, 1932.

I HAVE the honour to invite your approval to the following proposals for the reorganization of the Supreme Courts of the Colony and the Federated Malay States in connexion with the scheme for the decentralization of the Government of the Federated Malay States.

2. The Supreme Court of the Colony is constituted by Ordinance No. 101, and exercises within the Colony the same jurisdiction and authority as are held by His Majesty's High Court of Justice in England (Sections 8 and 9). It also has appellate jurisdiction, and when exercising such jurisdiction is called the Court of Appeal (Section 10). The judges of the Supreme Court of the Colony are appointed by His Majesty by Letters Patent under the Public Seal of the Colony (Section 4).

3. The Supreme Court of the Federated Malay States is constituted by the Courts Enactment, 1918, and comprises the Court of Appeal and the Courts of a Judge (Section 4 as amended by Enactment No. 5 of 1925). The Court of a Judge has full civil and criminal jurisdiction (Sections 49 and 50), jurisdiction to dissolve Christian marriages being conferred by Enactment No. 27 of 1928. The Chief Justice and judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the Chief Secretary to Government with the approval of the High Commissioner (Section 6).

4. Under Section 5 (ii) of the Straits Settlements Ordinance No. 101, the judges of the Federated Malay States who possess the necessary professional qualifications are er officio judges of the Supreme Court of the Colony. Under Section 6 (iv) of the Federated Malay States Courts Enactment, 1918, the puiene judges of the Colony, but not the Chief Justice, are supernumerary judges of the Federated Malay States. Arrangements for the attendance in the Colony of judges from the Federated Malay States and in the Federated Malay States of judges from the Colony are required to be made by the Governor and the High Commissioner.

5. The Supreme Court is a department which cannot conveniently be decen- tralized. In order to insure uniformity in decisions both as to punishments for crime and in the interpretation of laws, it is essential that there should be a single judicial service under a common head. This is also necessary to enable the judicial strength to be used to the greatest advantage in such services as Assizes and Courts of Appeal, and would prevent any suspicion of the judiciary being subject to interference by the State Governments. It is also possible that disputes on such matters as boundaries or water rights may arise between the States which would best be settled by judicial decision. For these reasons I am of opinion that the existing system of a common judicial service for the four States should be maintained; though, as will appear later (paragraph 6), I am of opinion that by a change in the nomenclature of the Courts the individuality of the several States can be emphasized.

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