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Isabella L. Bird - The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither
A policy of advice, and that alone, was contemplated by the Colonial Office; but without its orders or
even cognizance affairs were such that the government of those Malayan States to which Residents have
been accredited has been from the first exercised by the Residents themselves, mainly because neither in
Perak, Selangor, or Sungei Ujong has there ever been a ruler powerful enough to carry out such an
officer's advice, the Rajahs and other petty chiefs being able to set him at defiance. Advice would be
given that peace and order should be preserved, justice administered without regard to the rank of the
criminal, the collection of revenue placed upon a satisfactory footing, and good administration generally
secured, but had any reigning prince attempted to carry out these recommendations he would have been
overborne by the Rajahs, whose revenues depended on the very practices which the Resident denounced,
and by the piratical bands whose source of livelihood was the weakness and mal-administration of the
rulers. The Pangkor Treaty contained the words that the Resident's advice "_must be acted upon_," and
consequently the Residents have taken the direction of public affairs, organizing armed forces, imposing
taxes, taking into their own hands the collection of the revenues, receiving all complaints, executing
justice, punishing evil-doers, apprehending criminals, and repressing armed gangs of robbers. These
officers are, in fact, far more the agents of the Governor of the Straits Settlements than the advisers of the
native princes, and though paid out of native revenues are the virtual rulers of the country in all matters,
except those which relate to Malay religion and custom. As stated by Lord Carnarvon, "Their special
objects should be the maintenance of peace and law, the initiation of a sound system of taxation, with the
consequent development of the general resources of the country, and the supervision of the collection of
the revenue so as to insure the receipt of funds necessary to carry out the principal engagements of the
Government, and to pay for the cost of British officers and whatever establishments may be found
necessary to support them." Lord Carnarvon in the same dispatch states: "Neither annexation nor the
government of the country by British officers in the name of the Sultan
[a measure very little removed from annexation] could be allowed;" and elsewhere he says: "It should be
our present policy to find and train up some chief or chiefs of sufficient capacity and enlightenment to
appreciate the advantages of a civilized government, and to render some effectual assistance in the
government of the country."
The treaty of Pangkor provides "that the Resident's advice must be asked and acted upon (in Perak) on all
questions other than those relating to Malay religion and custom, and that the collection and control of all
revenue and the general administration of the country must be regulated under the advice of these
Residents." It was on the same terms that Residents were appointed at Selangor and Sungei Ujong.
APPENDIX B
Slavery in the Malay States.
Langat, 30th June, 1875.
Sir - When on board the Colonial steamer Pluto last week, accompanying His Excellency the Governor
in a tour to some of the native States, His Excellency made inquiry of me with regard to the present state
of debt-slavery in the Peninsula.
This was a subject so large and important as hardly to admit of thorough explanation in a conversation; I
therefore asked His Excellency's leave to report upon it.
I now beg to give you a detailed account of the circumstances of debt-slavery as known to me personally.
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