466 
as I have already pointed out, we had gradually resigoed 
to the Datoh. Durirp the occupatioD of the Netherlands 
by the French, the Dutch Oolonies in the East Indian 
Archipelago fell into our hands ; an expedition, fitted 
out in India, under the command of the Governor- 
General, Lord Minto, having (aken Java and its de- 
pendencies in 1811. We did not keep Java. With 
the fall of Napoleon, Holland was again made inde- 
pendent and Java was restored to her, no doubt in 
consequence of a wiee and statesmanlike recogtition 
o£ the fact that the retention by Holland of the principal 
of her Eastern colocics is essential to her vitality as 
a European Power. The creation of an important 
commercial emporium at Singapore was, however, the 
natural outcome of the surrender of Batavia, and the 
. position of Great Britain in the Far East has since been 
further strengthened by the acquisition of Hong-Kong, 
and by the wonderful development of our Colonies in 
Australasia, to which I may arid our recently-estab- 
lished protectorate over Sarawak and North Borneo. 
Since 1824, when a treaty was made between Great 
. Britain and Holland definicff the sphere of action of 
each in Malayan waters, we have of necessity confined 
ourselves to the peninsula of Malacca, the islands of 
Penang and Singapore, and the parts of Borneo juet 
mentioned. 
My object in addressing you this evening, at the 
invitation of the Conncil of the Royal Colonial In- 
Btitnte, is to attempt a brief description of what is 
being done towards opening up the Malay Peninsula, 
the field which we reserved to cureelves when we 
voluntBrily retired from all further political connection 
■with Java and Sumatra. The period of active British 
Interference in the Malay States of the Peninsula 
datet from 1874 only. For fifty years after the ces- 
Bion to the Dutch of Bencoolen, in Sumatra, in ex- 
change for Malacca, we confined ourselves to the 
two Indian Oolonies (Penang and Singapore) which I 
have described as having been planted in the Straits 
of Malacca by the English in Bengal, and to the old 
Portuguese and Dutch Colony of Malacca, which had 
become ours by cession. The Government of India 
called their remote dependencies by the collective 
title of " the Straits Settlement *' (in the singulsr), 
and supported them for years at the expense of the 
Indian tax-payer. Little was known of them in 
Calcutta, where, however, difficult questions connected 
with their administration caused infinite trouble from 
time to time. " These details may appear to your 
Lordship to be petty," wrote an Indian official apolo- 
getically to Lord Auckland in 1837, discussing some 
project relating to Straits finance, " but then every 
thing connected with these Settlements is petty, 
except their annual eurpius cost to the Government 
of India''! It is amusing to recall an official remark 
of this kind now in 1891, when the Colony of the 
Straits Settlements, with a history of twenty-four 
years of independent existence as a Crown Colony, 
may, in spite of recent temporary reverses, fairly 
claim to be the most prosperous and successful of all 
the Crown Colonies, having a revenue of four and a 
half million dollars, surplus assets (at the beginning 
of 1891) of two and a half million dollarfl, and no 
public debt. 
Later on, he referred to the transfer of the Settle- 
ment from the Indian to the Colonial Office 
authorities : — 
During the time that the Government of India go- 
verned the Straits Settlements their relations with the 
Malay Bajas of the Peninsula were always friendlj- ; 
but the native States were rarely visited by British 
officials, and their internal affairs were scarcely in 
•ny v»ay influenced by our advise or counsel. Treaties 
of alliance and friendship were made from time to 
time with all the liajas on the west coast, Kedah, 
Perak, Selangor, and Johor. When, in 1808, the 
Queen's sovereignty over India was proclaimed, each 
Haja found in the proclamation (which wat translated 
into Malay and sent to each native court) a Magna 
Charta ot his rights in the following memorable 
words : — 
"Wo hereby announce to the native princes of India 
\hi),S tU treaticB aud ongagemoutB mado with tbeca 
by or under the authority of the Honourable Bast 
India Company, are by us accepted, and will be scru- 
pulously maintained ; and we look for the like obser- 
vance on their part. 
"We desire no extension of our present territorial 
possessions ; and while we will permit no aggression 
upon our dominions or our rights to be attempted 
with impunity, we shall sanction no encroachment on 
those of others. We shall respect the rights, dignity 
and honour of native princes as our own, and we 
desire that they, as well as our own subjects, should 
enjoy that prosperity and that social advancement 
which can only be secured by internal peace and good 
government." 
I do cot think that I need enter into any detailed 
description of the circumstances which have led to 
the appointment of British Kesidents in certain States 
of the Malay Peninsula, to exercise a control which 
should secure "the rights, dignity, and honour" of 
the native princes whom they are instructed to advise. 
It will be sufficient to say generally that the chief, 
or, at any rate, the proximate cause has been the pre- 
sence in large numbers of Chinese in the Peninsula, 
and the powerlessnefs of the Malays to control them! 
Then came the era of Kesidents for the native 
states : — 
The Sultans of Perakand SeIaogor,the two States which 
are the centres of the tin-mining industry, asked in 
1874 that British Residents might be associated with 
them in the government of their respective States. 
Sungei Ujong, a email State to the south of Selangor, 
which also possessed a somewhat intractable Chinese 
mining population, accepted a Resident in 1875. 
Later, in 1883, Governor Sir Frederick Weld induced 
the group of small States lying between Snngei Ujong, 
Pahang, Malacca, aud Johcr (called the Negri Sem- 
bilan, or the Nine States) to confederate and to con- 
duct their government under tne advice and with the 
assistance of a resideut British officer. Lastly, in 18H8, 
in pursuance of an agreement between Sir Cecil 
dementi Smith, the present Governor of the Straits 
Settlements, and the Sultan, Pahang, a large State on 
the Bast Coast of the Peninsula, was added to the 
number of the Protected States, and its administration 
on an improved footing was made impossible by the 
appointment of a British Resident. 
The names of the Malay States in which British 
officers are stationed do not by any means exhaust the 
list of the States on the Peninsula. To the North of 
Province Wellesley (a dependency of Penang) there 
is the areient kingdom cf Kcdab, shorn of three otits 
province?, Perlis, Situl, and Traug, which now form 
semi-independent Stales. These are, in a sense, subject 
to the suzerainty of Siam. Further north, again, there 
are numerous small provinces or governorships under 
the direct control of Siam. The indigenous population 
here is Siamese and nut Malay, and these liitle States 
are chiefly interesting to us, because the settlers there 
include many (Chinese) British subjects. Indeed the 
Governors of two cf these provinces are Penang 
Chinese, and in many places the authority of the 
Siamese seems to be overshadowed by that of a power- 
ful Chinese secret society (the Ghi-Hin). They are 
visited annually by the Resident Councillor of Penang, 
who is British Consul for this region. 
On the East Cca&t, the purely Malay States are 
Patani, which had a long history as an independent 
State, and where the factors of the East India Com- 
pany had an " liocoarable reception from the queen 
and country people " in 1612. It was laid waste by 
the Siamese in 1818, and is now subdivided into seven 
provinces under separate petty chiefs. To the south, 
again, are Kelantan and Trengganu, virtually indepen- 
dent. At the extreme sonth of the Peninsula is the 
protected State of Johor, the government of which ia 
conducted by its energetic and enlightened ruler with 
the aid of advisers chosen by himself. 
Respecting the result, passing over a good deal, I 
quote as follows ; — 
The progress of States like Perak and Selargor can 
be illustrated in a striking manner by statistics, 
bowing the extraordinary growth of the revenue 
inoe 1875, But etatietics of tbia kiod ore, iu my 
