RAJA JAMES BROOKE AND SARAWAK
37
France, and in 1859 he "broke off" relations with Britain, upon which the Foreign Secretary, Lord Russell commented,12
Tell Brooke that the people of Sarawak are welcome to any independence they can achieve and maintain but that a British subject cannot throw off his allegiance at pleasure.
And Spencer St. John noted13 that "the Raja's correspondence during this year with Her Majesty's Government was not pleasant, and ended, apparently, in complete estrangement”.
Over the years Brooke had acquired a respectable following of supporters in Britain and Singapore, among whom were some influential figures such as Lord Grey, Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford, and the late Victorian philanthropist, Miss Angela Burdett-Coutts, later Baroness Burdett-Coutts. His friends now took up his cause and lobbied Whitehall from the Prime Minister's office down.
Britain refused to extend a colonial or protectorate status to Sarawak on practical political grounds. Henry Layard, an under-secretary in the Foreign Office, wrote that a protectorate was declined because of the "inconvenience of such relations between this country and a foreign territory", because Sarawak “would not be of sufficient value politically and commercially", and because Brooke's title was not "sufficiently clear"14
Brooke's friends persuaded the Government to have another look at Sarawak, and in 1861 Lord Elgin, who was about to depart as the new viceroy of India, was instructed to investigate the prospects and potential of Sarawak. He delegated the task to Colonel Cavenagh, Governor of the Straits Settlements. In due course Cavenagh and Elgin provided an optimistic assessment of Raja Brooke's state and suggested making Sarawak a lieutenant-governorship under Singapore. "I am disposed to think", wrote Lord Elgin,15
that the acquisition of Saigon by the French and the persistent endeavor of the Dutch authorities to cripple British trade... give enhanced importance to the preservation of the independence of Sarawak as a matter affecting British interests.'
12 See correspondence between the Foreign Office and Raja Brooke between 26 November and 17 December 1859, FO12/35.
13 Spencer St. John, Life of Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, (Edinburgh, 1879) p. 327.
14 Layard memorandum to Lord Elgin, 2 January 1862, FO12/35.
15 Elgin to Russell, 8 January 1863, FO12/35.
RAJA JAMES BROOKE AND SARAWAK
37
France, and in 1859 he "broke-off" relations with Britain, upon which the Foreign Secretary, Lord Russell commented,12
Tell Brooke that the people of Sarawak are welcome to any independence they can achieve and maintain but that a British subject cannot throw off his allegiance at pleasure.
And Spencer St. John noted13 that "the Raja's correspondence during this year with Her Majesty's Government was not pleasant, and ended, apparently, in complete estrangement”.
Over the years Brooke had acquired a respectable following of supporters in Britain and Singapore, among whom were some in- fluential figures such as Lord Grey, Bishop Wilberforce of Oxford, and the late Victorian philanthropist, Miss Angela Burdett-Coutts, later Baroness Burdett-Coutts. His friends now took up his cause and lobbied Whitehall from the Prime Minister's office down.
Britain refused to extend a colonial or protectorate status to Sarawak on practical political grounds. Henry Layard, an under- secretary in the Foreign Office, wrote that a protectorate was declined because of the "inconvenience of such relations between this country and a foreign territory", because Sarawak “would not be of sufficient value politically and commercially", and because Brooke's title was not "sufficiently clear" 14
Brooke's friends persuaded the Government to have another look at Sarawak, and in 1861 Lord Elgin, who was about to depart as the new viceroy of India, was instructed to investigate the prospects and potential of Sarawak. He delegated the task to Colonel Cavenagh, Governor of the Straits Settlements. In due course Cavenagh and Elgin provided an optimistic assessment of Raja Brooke's state and suggested making Sarawak a lieutenant-governorship under Singapore. "I am disposed to think", wrote Lord Elgin,15
that the acquisition of Saigon by the French and the per- sistent endeavor of the Dutch authorities to cripple British trade... give enhanced importance to the preservation of the independence of Sarawak as a matter affecting British interests.'
12 See correspondence between the Foreign Office and Raja Brooke between 26 November and 17 December 1859, FO 12/35.
13 Spencer St. John, Life of Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, (Edinburgh, 1879) p. 327.
14 Layard memorandum to Lord Elgin, 2 January 1862, FO 12/35. 15 Elgin to Russell, 8 January 1863, FO 12/35.
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