BRITISH NORTH BORNEO. 835 



but those who have lived as long as I have amongst the Chinese will testify 

 to their value if they are treated properly. One advantage with this labour is 

 that you can make contracts, and payment by results, by which means you can 

 get the maximum amount of labour at the minimum of expense. Borneo is 

 but a few days' steam from China and Singapore, where, for a moderate wage, 

 an unlimited amount of this labour can be obtained. Anyone who has studied 

 the map will, I think, recognise that, commercially and strategically, North 

 Borneo occupies a position of great importance. Lying on the high road 

 between China and Australia, we must in time get a large population there. 

 The climate I can speak well of. I have lived there many months at different 

 times of the year. The Government of the country is based, as Sir "Walter 

 has told us, on the Indian penal code, and the administration seems to meet 

 the wishes of the natives and the Chinese, and the other settlers. A force of 

 180 police has hitherto been sufficient to keep order with comparative ease. As 

 to the charter, seme friends of the enterprise seem to believe that the enormous 

 powers we hold were given by Her Majesty the Queen. It is not so at all. All 

 our powers were derived entirely from the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu, and what 

 the British Government did was simply to incorporate us by Koyal charter, 

 thus recognising our powers, which recognition is to us, of course, of vital 

 importance. I hope I have said enough to interest you in our scheme, and to 

 show that North Borneo has a considerable future before it." 



Ed, 



