Reminiscences of the Straits Settlements. 157 
acknowledgment of one and subsequent ideals led to the murder of Mr. Birch— 
the Perak War—the settlement of that country by degrees as also of Singei 
Ujong Selanger and so on, uatil by the recent arrangement with Siam, Kedah 
and Kelantan have been added to the Federated Malay States and the whole 
of the Peninsula barring one State is in the Federation. The Maharajah of 
Johore who was later made a Sultan gave loyal support to our Government. 
THe Opium Farm. 
So much for secret societies in the form of disturbances of the peace. The 
next thing to which I will refer is the Opium Farm. The revenue of the Straits 
was derived from the Opium and Spirit Farms which were let by competition 
for a period of years. Whoever succeeded in obtaining the Farm had the 
monopoly of the trace. Al the Government had to do was to receive the 
revenue and support the farmer when he required the assistance of the Jaw in 
the way of search warrants and soon. Detectivesand Revenue Runneis were 
employed by the farmer hiraself who issued licences and fixed the prices of 
opium aad spirits. The forreer was only sold when prepared for smoking. 
As the price paid for the Farm increased so did the cost uf the commedity to 
the consumer. Smuggling by the rivals in the competition assumed large 
proportions anc the ingenuity of the Celestial had great scope. One case I 
remember when I was in Province Wellesley is a good instance. I was applied 
to one day for a search warrant to search the house of a wealthy Chinese. The 
house was near the frontier of the British territory and Kedah. The informa- 
tion was brought by a Revenue Runner who persisted that the facts he was 
ready to swear to were bona fide. 1 granted the search warrant and the police 
were directed to execute it. On reaching the house the warrant was exhibited 
and the reason of the presence of the police made known. The spot was an 
isolated one and the numbers of the police and revenue runners with their 
retainers not large. So it was not without surprise that the Officer in charge 
found himself surrounded by 
A YELLING Mop oF CHINESE 
brandishing all sorts of weapons from tridents to pointed sticks. There was 
every appearance that desperate resistance was to be offered but fortunately 
a relative of the owner of the house, who happened to be paying a week-end 
visit to the country residence, appeared and calmed the excitement. The police 
proceeded upstairs into the house and searched. Nothing was founc. As 
they were about to leave the revenue runner pointed out that one room, that of 
the females of the establishment had not been searched. Another scene ensued 
to be duly caimed. On searching the bed there were found in the canopy two 
or three of the horn boxes used for keeping prepared opium from the lids of 
which the stuff was exuding. The revenue runner was triumphant. The police 
left with the boxes duly sealed in public with all the necessary formalities. 
In the ordinary course the case was called after the usual preliminary pro- 
ceedings. Its fate was to break down completely, for on analysis the opium 
turned out to be molasses which bears a resemblance to prepared opium. The 
necessary smell was given outside by a very slight smearing of real opium. 
Facts which subsequently came to be known established most clearly that the 
