Directory_and_Chronicle_1935 — Page 1285

Philippine

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS

The Crown Colony of the Straits Settlements dates from 1867. It comprises the four Settlements of Singapore, Penang, Malacca, and Labuan, Singapore including Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands, and Penang including Province Wellesley and the Dindings.

Malacca was in the 13th century the seat of a Malay Sultanate which exercised suzerainty over the Peninsula and had diplomatic relations with China and Siam. Being situated midway in the Straits connecting the Pacific with the Indian Ocean, it was the emporium of trade between East and West just as Singapore is to-day. For this reason, it was taken by the Portuguese in 1511 and retained by them till 1641 when it fell to the Dutch. In 1795, it was captured by the British who were at war with the Dutch as allies of the French Republic, and restored to the Dutch in 1818. It finally was ex- changed for Bencoolen in Sumatra, under the terms of the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1824.

Penang, the oldest of the British Settlements, was founded as Prince of Wales' Island by Captain FRANCIS LIGHT in 1786. It was ceded by the Sultan of Kedah on a perpetual lease for an annual payment of $6,000, partly as a trading settlement and partly as a base for the English fleet in the Bay of Bengal. Province Wellesley was similarly ceded in 1800, for a rent of $4,000 to protect Penang from attack by land, and the Dindings, by the Chiefs of Perak, in 1874, for the suppression of piracy.

Singapore was in the 13th and 14th centuries a Malay city of importance till it was destroyed by the Javanese about 1377. It then remained waste till the present Settlement was founded on January 30, 1819, by Sir STAMFORD RAFFLES, then Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen, Sumatra. Singapore remain- ed a dependency of Fort Malborough, Bencoolen, till 1823, when it was placed directly under the Government of India. The original lease by the Sultan of Johore and the Dato TEMENGGONG, Chief of Singapore, of the site of a factory, in 1819, was followed in 1824 by the cession of the Island in perpetuity, this being accepted by the Dutch in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of the same year.

In 1805, Penang became an Indian Presidency and in 1807 was granted, by the Crown, a Charter of Justice, the first Court of Judicature sitting in 1808. In 1826, the three Settlements were united to form a single Presidency, with headquarters at Penang. The same year, a second Charter of Justice was granted, establishing the Court of Judicature of Prince of Wales' Island, Singapore and Malacca, the first Court sitting at Penang in 1827. In 1830, the Presidency was abolished, the Settlements becoming part of the Presidency of Bengal. In 1836, the seat of local Government was moved from Penang to Singapore. On April 1, 1867, the Settlements were transferred, on the request of their inhabitants, from the control of the Government of India to that of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in London. The Cocos Islands were incorporated in the Settlement of Singapore in 1886, and Christmas Island in 1889. Labuan, which had itself been a Crown Colony since 1848, was in- corporated in the Straits Settlements and declared part of the Settlement of Singapore in 1907, and was constituted a separate Settlement in 1912.

The Constitution of the Colony consists of Letters Patent, passed under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, dated the 17th February, 1911, amended by Letters Patent dated the 18th August, 1924, constituting the office of Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Straits Settlements and their Depen- dencies, and Instructions to the Governor passed under the Royal Sign Manual and Signet, dated 18th August, 1924, amended by additional Instructions dated 23rd February, 1931.

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