182 THE INDEPENDENT NATITE STATES 



after trial, prove themselves unable or unwilling to maintain 

 order in their own countries, and amicable relations with our 

 possessions, then the other alternative would still remain. 



The question of the succession was fully discussed, and all the 

 Chiefs at Pengkor expressed their desire to appoint Abdullah 

 Sultan, and Sir Andrew Clarke, agreeing to their unanimous 

 election of him, an Engagement was drawn up setting forth this 

 new creation, ackno-wledged by Her Majesty's representative, and 

 conferring on Ismail the title of Ex-Sultan : consenting, at the 

 request of the Sultan and his Chiefs, to send a British Officer to 

 be Resident in Perak, to collect the revenue and advise the Sultan, 

 and also containing clauses which rectified the boundary between 

 Province Wellesley and that part of Perak called Krian ; whilst 

 the old and much discussed Treaty of 1825 was declared to be 

 interpreted in the sense in which it had, no doubt, been made, 

 i. e., that the Dindings, a strip of the mainland, as well as the 

 Islands of Pengkor, should be British territory. 



The principal results of this action are, that since that Engage- 

 ment was made, there has been no case of piracy in Perak waters. 

 Larut has been re-peopled, and its revenues have doubled in 

 amount what was received in its most prosperous days under the 

 unaided administration of its Native ruler ; whilst the proportion 

 of crime to the population of Perak has not been greater than that 

 in the Straits Settlements. At the same time, in Larut, all arms 

 have been removed and stockades destroyed, whilst towns have 

 been built, mines opened, and roads made, the necessary accom- 

 paniments of an increased population and an increased revenue. 



The proposal to send Resident British Officers to advise and 

 assist the Native rulers and afford protection to British subjects 

 originated with the Malay Rajas themselves, Raja Abdullah having 

 in 1872, begged Governor Sir Harry Ord to assist him to obtain 

 his rights as Sultan and to lend him an Officer to teach him how to 

 govern his country, saying that he would give that Officer for a 

 time the whole revenues of his country, except sufficient to provide 

 himself with food and clothing. 



