CO885-6 — Page 70

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

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

6 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

The Selangor line, from Klang (the port) to Kuala Lumpor (the mining centre), was constructed with the same objects. This line has paid from 18 per cent. to 25 per cent., and probably now pays from 12 per cent. to 15 per cent. The line has been extended to Kuala Kubu in the interior (the base of the hill road to Pahang), and is now being extended from Klang to the const to avoid ten miles of river journey. Another line has been begun and partly constructed from Kuala Lumpor (the capital of the State) towards Cheras. This extension has been completed as far as Sungei Besi-—a rich mining field.

The Sungei Ujong line, from Port Dickson to Seramban, was constructed with the same object, but, unfortunately, it belongs to a private company. I think the Govern- ment should acquire this line." The company has a concession, and 44 per cent. interest on capital is guaranteed.

The last, but most important, of the lines is that from Teluk Anson, on the Perak River, to Ipoh, and now under yearly extension in a North-Westerly direction. This line was built with the same object as the others, and when it has had time to settle down into working order it will pay over 10

per cent.

There is a small tramway, or very narrow gauge railway, in the Sultan of Johore's territory of Muar, but I know nothing about it.

2. There are two extensions, which I have shown by a heavy red line, that I think must sooner or later be constructed. They are both in Perak, or rather, one is wholly in Perak (from Taipeng to Chemor), and the other is partly in Perak and partly in Penang. I have already written very fully on these proposals, and need only say here that of the two, the one which is wholly in Perak should be proceeded with first, in order that the For Kinta and Larut Railways may be joined, and economy in working secured, administrative purposes and the convenience of travellers this connection will be of the greatest service.

I advocate the construction of the line, Taipeng to Kuala Prai (in Province Wellesley, opposite Penang), by a private company, because it will relieve our money for work in the State, because I think there would be serious difficulty in using Perak money for the construction of a line on Colonial territory, and because the Colony does not seem likely to do the work itself, though that, in my opinion, would be the right course to adopt. It is not a matter over which we can afford to hesitate much longer, or we may lose the present opportunity, which is hardly likely to come again.

I attach a separate tracing showing the proposed routes for this line on a large scale. I am in favour of the route A, which I suggested myself, but I believe the Resident Engineer for Railways in Perak agrees with me.

3. I have put in with a thick blue line two suggestions which require consideration before any steps are taken to treat them as practical proposals,

success,

The object of the first is to join the Perak and Selangor systems by a line that would traverse a very valuable but very slightly developed country, over which we are now Besides the fact that this line would properly constructing a first-class cart rond. traverse a rich but almost untouched district, where gold and tin are just beginning to be worked with and where there is an immense quantity of the best agricultural land, a glance at the map will suggest the many other advantages that this line would offer as uniting the Perak and Selangor systems, giving through railway traffic from the Port of Penang perhaps to the Klang Straits, while sharing with the Selangor line (and · so relieving it) the Pahang traffic that must pass over the mountain road from Kuala Kubu to Kuala Lipis on the Pahang River.

That brings me to the second suggestion-a line from a point on this very mountain rond, where it enters on the plains on the Pahang side to Kuala Lipis. I suggest this as the best and most paying line of railway for first construction in Pahang. It would be of immense service to the existing mines at Raub, Tras, l'enjum and the neighbourhood. It would encourage the development of this the richest known mining district in Pahang, and I believe it would be more capable of valuable extension, certainly from one end, and probably from both, than

any other line that is at all likely to be thought of for any time to come.

4. The only other suggestion I have noted on the map is the broken blue line to indicate the course of a railway from Kuala Prai, in Province Wellesley, through Kulim, the mining village on the borders of British and Kedah territory, and thence right through the great Kelah rice plain to Senggoru, on the East Coast of the Peninsula.

I believe that I first suggested this railway in a report which I wrote to the Governor of the States, after a visit to the Sultan of Kedah, about 1890 (the report was forwarded to the Colonial Office by Governor Sir C. C. Smith), and since then a concession was

5

I believe that he failed to granted to Mr. C. Dunlop to enable him to construct the line. raise the necessary funds, and the concession lus lapsed, but the line is one which has few engineering difficulties, and if the British influence were to replace that of Siam in the northern part of the Peninsula, this line, which might without much difficulty be made to join on to the Burmah system, should not be lost sight of.

5. I trust it will be understood that many of the above ideas are very crude, but it is well to have some general view of the direction in which extensions should be made, and when I return to the Peninsula I can get any further information on the subject that the Secretary of State may desire.

I was unable to obtain in London the Asiatic Society's large map of the Peninsula, and I sent to Perak for a copy of it, but it has not arrived, and as I shall be returning so soon I did not like to delay longer, so, with Mr. Stanford's assistance, I prepared the accompanying map on a smaller scale, and I think it will meet the purpose.

6. The map is incomplete in one respect, that it does not show the extension of the Selangor Railway from Kuala Lumpor towards Cheras, because I do not know it well Had I got, enough to attempt to show it even roughly, and I cannot say how far it has been able to put this in, I should have joined the end of the extension with Seramban by a thick blue line, for that, in my opinion, is an extension that should come with the other extensions shown in that colour, and the general effect of the proposals made in this memorandum will not be fully apparent until this omission is supplied.

F. A. SWEttenham.

At Whitton Lodge, near Rugby,

February 17th.

3677.

SIR,

No. 2.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN to Governor Sir C, B. H, MITCHELL. [Answered by No. 3.]

(Straits Settlements. No. 103.)

Downing Street, March 17, 1896. Advantage has been taken of Mr. Swettenham's visit to this country to ascertain his views upon railway extension in the Malay peninsula; and he has been good enough to favour me with a memorandum,* a copy of which is enclosed, and a map,† on which are shown the railway lines now in existence and those which he considers might with advantage be made.

gap referred to at the end of the memorandum has been filled in in blue pencil,

The

at this office.

2. In my despatch of the 27th of December last,‡ dealing with the subject of the Federation of the Protected Malay States, I wrote, "I hope to find that in the future "the work of constructing highways and railways along or across the Peninsula will "be pursued not merely with a view to the profit and development of particulur "districts, but upon comprehensive principles, and with a preference for such works as

are capable of future extension to meet future needs."

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The map seems to show that, while the railways hitherto constructed have, as Mr. Swettenham points out, "been built in order to put the mining centres in direct com- "munication with the seaports," the future completion of a trunk line down the peninsula has not been left out of sight, and with his end in view, one and the same gauge has,

I understand, been adopted in all the Protected States, with the exception of the tramway

in Johor. The ground has, therefore, been well prepared for future extension of the railways upon comprehensive principles."

range

6.

3. The railways of which construction appears at the present moment to be within the

of practical politics

are-

(1.) A line between the Prye dock and the Perak frontier, and thence to the

existing Perak railway system.

(2.) A line between Taipeng and Chemor, in Perak.

(3.) A line connecting the Kinta Valley Railway in l'erak with the Northern

terminus of the Selangor railway at Kuala Kubu.

(4.) A line from the Southern terminus of the Selangor railway, at or near Cheras,

to join the Sungei Ujong railway at Seramban.

• Enclosure in No. 1.

† Not reproduced.

+9196/95: not printed.