CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
THE
CHARLES WILLIAM WASON
COLLECTION ON CHINA
AND THE CHINESE
Cornell University Library DS 592.W94
Twentieth century impressions of British
3 1924 023 134 368 .*.,..
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
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TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS
OF
BRITISH MALAYA
A MAP OF THE
MALAY PENINSULA
Scale of Statute Miles' 10 2C 30 40 y> cp
Moj/ways Open.
f^ai/woiJb undet Construction
TiiT
1^2° I
l(i3°j
i^tomtktlj Cmtur^ Impr^gsinns
0f
ritiab JEala^a
ITS HISTORY, PEOPLE, COMMERCE, INDUSTRIES, AND RESOURCES
Editor in Chief: ARNOLD WRIGHT (London). ASSISTANT Editor: H. A. CARTWRIGHT (Singapore).
LONDON, DURBAN, COLOMBO, PERTH (W.A.), SINGAPORE, HONGKONG, AND
SHANGHAI :
LLOYD'S GREATER BRITAIN PUBLISHING COMPANY, LTD.,
1908.
Lo
\f\i -U>L:l7o
HIS EXCELLENCY SIR JOHN ANDERSON, K.C.M.G., GOVERNOR AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF
THE STRA.ITS SETTLEMENTS, HIGH C3M.VII3SIONER FOR THE FEDERATED MALAY STATES,
AND CONSUL-GENERAL FOR BRITISH NORTH BORNEO, BRUNEI, AND SARAWAK.
MISS ANDERSON.
PREFACE
HIS work is ihc outcome of an enterprise licsignal to liivc in an altrachve Jonii full and reliable information willi reference to the outlying parts of the Empire. The value of a fuller knowledge of the '■ Britains beyond ttic Sea" and ttie great depen- dencies of the Croivn as a means of tiglitening the bonds which unite the component parts of the King's dominions was insisted upon by Mr. Chamberlain in a memorable speech, and the same note ran through the Prince of Wales's impressive Mansion House address in which His Royal Highness summed up the lessons of his lour through the Empire, from ivhicli he had Hum fust returned. In some instances, notably in the case of Canada, the local Governments have done much to difluse in a popular form infoi niation relative to the territory which they administer. But there are other centres in wliich olficial enteifrise in this direction has not been possible, or, at all events, in wliich action has not been taken, and it is in this prolilic Held lliat the publishers are working. So far tliev have found ample fustijication for tlicir labours in the widespread public interest taken in their operations in the colonies which have been the scene of Hair ivork, and in the extremely cordial reception given by the Press, both home and colonial, to ttie completed results.
Briefly, the aim which the publishers keep steadily before Hi em is to give a perfect microcosm of the colony or dependency treated. As old Stow with patient application and scrupulous regard tor accuracy set himself to survey the London of his day, so the workers employed in tlie production of this scries endeavour to give a picture, complete in every particular, of Hie distant possessions of the Croivn. Bui topography is only one of ttie features treated. Responding to modern needs and tastes, the literary investigators devote their attention to every important phase of life, bringing to the elucidation of the subjects treated the powerful aid of the latest and best metliods of pictorial illustration. Thus a work is compiled which is not only of solid iind enduring value for purposes of reference and for practical business objects, but is of unique interest to all who arc interested in Hie developnient of the Empire.
Following closely upon Hie lines of Hie earlier works of Hie series on JVcslerii Australia, Xatat. and Ceylon, this volume deals e.yhaustively willi the liistory. administration, peoples, commerce, industries, and potentialities of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States — territories ichich. though but comparatively little known hitherto, promise to become of very great commercial importance in the near future. By reason of their
PREFACE
scattered nature, wide extent, undeveloped condition, and different systems of government, the adequate treatment of them has presented no little difficulty to the compilers. But neither trouble nor expense has been spared in the attempt to secure full and accurate information in every direction, and, wherever possible, the services of recognised experts have been enlisted. The general historical matter has been written after an exhaustive study of the original records at the India Office, and it embodies information which throws a new light upon some aspects of the early life of the Straits Settlements. For the facilities rendered in the prosecution of his researches and also for the sanction freely given to him to reproduce many original sketches and scarce prints in the splendid collection at the India Office Library, Whitehall, the Editor has to offer his thanks to ike India Council. In the Straits much valued assistance has been rendered by the heads of the various Government Departments, and the Editor is especially indebted to his Excellency Sir John Anderson, K.C.M.G., the Governor of the Straits Settlements and High Commissioner for the Federated Malay States, who has given every possible encouragement to the enterprise.
Obviously a work of this magnitude cannot be produced except at very considerable cost. As the publishers do not ask for any Government subsidy, because of the restrictions which it might impose upon them, this cost has to be met in part by receipts from the sale of copies and in part by revenue from the insertion of commercial photographs. The publishers venture to think that this fact furnishes no ground for adverse criticism. The principle is that adopted by the highest class of newspapers and magazines all over the world. Moreover, it is claimed that these photographs add to, rather than detract from, the value of the book. They serve to show the manifold interests of the country, and, with the accompanying descriptive letterpress, which is independently written by members of the staff from personal observation, they constitute a picturesque and useful feature thai is not without interest to the general reader and student of economics, while it is of undoubted value to business men throughout the British Empire.
November, 1907.
CONTENTS
The Straits Settlements. By Arnold Wright —
Early History ■ • ......
Singapore .... .... . .
PiNANG (including PROVINCE WELLESLEY AND THE DiNDINGs)
Malacca . ..... .... . .
The Federated Malay States. By Arnold Wright (with chapters on the early history
of the Malays and the Portuguese and Dutch Periods by R. J. Wilkinson, Secretary
to the Resident of Perak) ........ ....
Christmas Island, the Cocos-Keeling Islands, and Labuan . ...
The Present Day .... ... . .
List of Governors and High Commissioners
Constitution and Law
State Finance . . ....
Opium . ...
Gambling and Spirits . . . .
Exports, Imports, and Shipping. By A. Stuart, Registrar of Imports and Exports,
Straits Settlements . . ....
Harbours and Lighthouses . . .....
Social Life .... . .
The Population of Malaya. By Mrs. Reginald Sanderson
The Malays of British Malay'a. By B. O. Stoney, Hon. Sec. of the Malay Settlement,
Kuala Lunipor . . . ■ ...
Malay Literature. By R. J. Wilkinson ... . .
Native Arts and Handicrafts. By L. Wray, I.S.O., M.I.E.E., F.Z.S., M.R.P.S., etc.,
Director of Museums, Federated Malay States . Health and Hospitals .
Press. By W. Makepeace . . . .
Education. By J. B. Elcum, B.A. Oxon., Director of Public Instruction, Straits Settlements
and Federated Malay States Religion .... ... . . .
Police. By Captain W. A. Cuscaden, Inspector-General of Police, Straits Settlements, and
Captain H. L. Tal,bot, Commissioner of Police, Federated Malay States Prisons . . ...
Railways . . . . .
/ Public Works .
Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones ....
Forests of Malaya. By A. M. Burn-Murdoch, Conservator of Forests, Federated Malay
States and Straits Settlements ...
13 20
49 65
74 "5 117 120 121
137 152 161
162
182
195 213
222 229
232 346 353
267 281
394 301 303
314 ^ 326
330
12
CONTENTS
Botany. By H. N. Ridley, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.R.H.S., etc., Director of the Botanical Gardens^ Singapore . . ....
Agriculture. By R. Derry', Assistant Superintendent, Botanical Gardens, Singapore .
Rubber. By J. B. Carruthers, F.R.S.E., F.L.S., Director of Agriculture and Government Botanist, Federated Malay States . . .... ...
Coconut Cultivation. By L. C. Brown, Inspector of Coconut Plantations, Federated Malay States
The Pineapple Industry
Mining
Fisheries .
Meteorology ....
Geology. By J. B. Scrivenor, Government Geologist, Federated Malay States
Sport. By Theodore R. Hubback
Military .
The Straits Settle.ments — Singapore
PiXAXG
Malacca The Federated Malay States — Kuala Lumpor Perak Selangor Negri Sambilan Pahang
JoHOKE
Social and Professional
Indfstrial .
Commercial ...
Fauna. By H. C. Robinson, Curator, Selangor Museum Information for Tourists Concluding Note Index .
332 339
345
503 504 505 554 556 558 559 587
599 .r
728^ 837
845 858 878 881 886 890 892 907 912 927 937 953 955
iritislj ^ala^a:
ITS HISTORY, PEOPLE, COMMERCE, INDUSTRIES, AND RESOURCES
?? Q -^
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS
By ARNOLD WRIGHT
bi 9 d^
liW of the oversea pos- sessions of the Crown, outside India and the great self - governing colonies, can compare in interest and importance with the Straits Settle- ments. They are situ- ated in a region which Nature has marked out as one of the great strategic centres of the world alilce for pur- poses of war and of commerce. "Within its narrowest limits," wrote the gifted statesman ' to whom Britain owes the possession to-day of the most important unit of this magnificent group of colonies, " it embraces the whole of the vast Archipelago which, stretching from Sumatra and Java to the Islands of the Pacific and thence to the shores of China and Japan, has in all ages excited the attention and attracted the cupidity of more civilised nations; an area whose valuable and peculiar produc- tions contributed to swell the extravagance of Roman luxury, and one which in more modern times has raised the power and consequence
' Sir T. Stamford Raffles, " Memoir on the Adminis- tration of the Eastern Islands," in Lady Raffles's " Memoir of SirT. Stamford RafHes," Appendix L, 25.
EARLY HISTORY
of every successive European nation into whose hands its commerce has fallen ; and which, further, perhaps in its earliest period among the Italian States, communicated the first electric spark which awoke to life the energies and the literature of Europe."
England's interest in this extensive region dates back to the very dawn of her colonial history. The foundations of theexisting colonies were laid in "the spacious age " of Elizabeth, in the period following the defeat of the Spanish Armada, when the great Queen's reign was drawing to its splendid close in a blaze of triumphant commercial achievement.
Drake carried the English flag through the Straits of Malacca in his famous circumnaviga- tion of the world in 1579. But it was left to another of the sturdy band of Elizabethan adventurers to take the first real step in the introduction of English influence into the archipelago. The Empire-builder who laid the corner-stone of the noble edifice of which we are treating was James Lancaster, a bluff old sailor who had served his apprenticeship in the first school of English seamanship of that or any other day. It is probable that he accom- panied Drake on his tour round the world : he certainly fought with him in the great struggle 13
against the Armada. After that crowning vic- tory, when the seas were opened everywhere to vessels bearing the English flag, men's thoughts were cast towards that Eldorado of the East of which glowing accounts had been brought back by the early adventurers. Then was laid the corner-stone of the structure which, in pro- cess of time, developed into the mighty Eastern Empire of Britain. The first direct venture was the despatch of three small ships, with Lancaster as second in command, to the East. Quitting Plymouth on .\pril 10, 1591, these tiny vessels, mere cockboats compared with the leviathans which now traverse the ocean, after an adventurous voyage reached Pulo Pinang in June of the same year. The crews of the squadron were decimated by disease. On Lancaster's ship, the Edward Bonavcutnrc, there were left of a complement of upwards of a hundred " only 33 men and one boy, of which not past 22 were found for labour and help, and of them not past a third sailors." Nevertheless, after a brief sojourn Lancaster put to sea, and in August captured a small Portuguese vessel laden with pepper, another of 250 tons burthen, and a third of 750 tons. \A'ith these valuable prizes the daring adventurer proceeded home, afterwards touch-
14
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH 'v ALAYA
ing at Point de Galle, in Ceylon, to recruit. The return voyage was marked by many thrilling episodes, but eventually the ships got safely to their destinations, though of the crew of 198 who had doubled the Cape only 25 landed again in England.
The terrible risks of the adventure were soon forgotten in the jubilation which was caused by the results achieved. These were of a char- acter to fire men's imaginations. On the one hand the voyagers had to show the valuable booty which they had captured from the Portu- guese ; on the other they were able to point to the breaking of the foreign monopoly of the lucrative Eastern trade which was implied in their success. The voyage marked an epoch in English commercial history. As a direct
On June 5th following the fleet reached Achin. A most cordial reception awaited Lancaster at the hands of the King of Achin. The fame of England's victory over Spain had enormously enhanced her prestige in the Eastern world, and in Achin there was the greater disposition to show friendliness to the English because of the bitter enmity of the Achinese to the Portuguese, whose high-handed dealings had created a lively hatred of their rule. Lan- caster, who bore with him a letter from the Queen to the native potentate, seems to have been as clever a diplomat as he was able a sailor. The royal missive was conveyed to the native Court with great pomp. In delivering it with a handsome present, Lancaster declared that the purpose of his coming was to establish
POETRAIT OF SIR FRANCIS DRAKE WITH HAWKINS AND CAVENDISH.
(Reproduced by permission of the Lords of the Admiralty from the picture in the Gallery at Greenwich Hospital.) Drake was the first EngUshman to navigate a ship through the Straits of Malacca.
result of it followed the formation of the East India Company. The various steps which led up to that important event lie beyond the pro- vince of the present narrative. It is sufficient for the purposes in hand to note that when the time had come for action Lancaster was selected by the adventurers to command the Company's first fleet, and that he went out duly commisr sioned by the authority of the Queen as their Governor-General." Established in the Red Dragon, a ship of 600 tons burthen, and with three other vessels under his control, Lancaster sailed from Woolwich on February 13, 1600-1.
" This point, which has been overlooked by man\- writers, is made clear by this entry to be found in the Hatfield Manuscripts (Historical Manuscripts Commission), Part xi. p. 18 : " i5oo-i, Jan. 24th. Letters patent to James Lancaster, chosen by the Governor and Company of the Merchants of London trading to the East Indies as their Governor-General. The Queen approves of their choice, and grants authority to Lancaster to exercise the office."
peace and amity between his royal mistress and her loving brother the miglity King of Achin. Not to be outdone in courtesy, the Sumatran prince invited Lancaster and his officers to a magnificent banquet, in which the service was of gold, and at which the King's damsels, richly attired and adorned with jewellery, attended, and danced and sang for the guests' edification. The culminating feature of the entertainment was the investiture of Lancaster by the King with a splendid robe and the presentation to him of two kriscs — the characteristic weapon of Malaya, without which no honorific dress is considered complete by the Malays. What was more to the purpose than these honours, grati- fying as they were to the Englishmen, was the appointment of two nobles, one of whom was the chief priest, to settle with Lancaster the terms of a commercial treaty. The negotiations proceeded favourably, and in due course Lan-
caster was able to congratulate h.mself on having secured for his country a formal and exp lick right to trade in Achin. The progress expncu iit,iiL watched with
of events, meanwhile, was Demg w jealous anxiety by the Portugiiese who knew 'that the intrusion of so formidable a rival as England into their sphere of influence boded ill for the future of their power. Attempts were actually made to sterilise the negotiations, but Lancaster was too well acquainted with Portu- guese wiles to be taken at a disadvantage. On the contrary, his skill enabled him to turn the Portuguese weapons against themselves. By bribing the spies sent to Achin he got informa- tion which led to the capture of a rich prize —a fully laden vessel of 900 tons— in the Straits of Malacca. Returning to Achin after this ex- pedition, Lancaster made preparations for the homeward voyage, loading his ships with pepper, then a costly commodity in England ovifing to the monopolising policy of the Portu- guese and the Spaniards. He seems to have continued to the end in high favour with the King. At the farewell interview the old monarch asked Lancaster and his officers to favour him by singing one of the Psalms of David. This singular request was complied with, the selec- ,; tionbeing given with much solemnity.' On Nov- ember 9, 1602, the Red Dragon weighed anchor I and proceeded to Bantam, where Lancaster % t| ' established a factory. A second trading estab- { ■ lishment was formed in the Moluccas. This done^ the Red Dragon, with two of the other vessels of the fleet, steered a course homeward. The little squadron encountered a terrible storm off the Cape, which nearly ended in disaster to the enterprise. Lancaster's good seamanship, how- ever, brought his vessels through the crisis safely. It says much for the indomitable spirit of the man that when the storm was at its height and his own vessel seemed on the point of foundering he wrote, for transmission by one of the other ships, a letter to his employers at home, assuring them that he would do his utmost to save the craft and its valuable cargo, and concluding with this remarkable sentence ; " The passage to the East Indies lies in 62 de- grees 30 minutes by the NW. on the America side."' Lancaster reached England on Septem- ber II, 1603. The country resounded with praises of his great achievement. Milton, as a boy, must have been deeply impressed with the episode, for it inspired some of his stateliest verse. Obvious references to Lancaster's voy- ages are to be found, as Sir George Birdwood has pointed out,3 in " Paradise Lost," in the poet's descriptions of Satan. Thus, in Book II. we have a presentment of the Evil One as he
" Puts on swift wings and then soars Up to the fiery concave towering high As when far off at sea a fleet descried Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles Of Ternate aud Tidore, whence merchants bring Their spicy drugs ; tliey on the trading flood Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape Ply, stemming nightly towards the Pole. So seemed far off the flying fiend."
■ Marsden's " History of Sumatra," i. p. 436.
= Hakluyt's " Principal Xavigations," ii. p. 2, 1. 102.
3 " Report on the Old Records of the East India Company," p. 205.
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
15
And again in Book IV. :
" So on he fares, and to the border comes Of Eden . . A sylvan scene . Of stateliest view . .
. . able to drive All sadness but despair ; now gentle gales Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they
stole Those balmy spoils. As when to them who
sail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past Mozambick, off at sea North East winds blow Sabean odours from the spicy shore Of Araby the Blest ; with such delay Well pleased they slack their course, and many
a league Cheer'd with the grateful smell Old Ocean
smiles : So entertain'd those odorous sweets the fiend Who came their bane."
This Rne imagery shows how deep was the impression made upon the nation by Lan- caster's enterprise. But it was in its practical aspects that the success achieved produced the most striking results. The immediate frilit of the voyage was a great burst of commercial activity. The infant East India Company gained ad- herents on all sides, and men put their- capital into it in confident assurance that they would reap a golden return on their investment. So the undertaking progressed until it took its place amongst the great established institutions of the country. Meanwhile Lancaster dropped into a wealthy retirement. He lived for a good many years in leisured ease, and dying, left a substantial fortune to his heirs..
The history of the East India Company in its earliest years was a chequered one. The Dutch viewed the intrusion of their English rivals into the Straits with jealous apprehension, and they lost no opportunity of harassing the
trading operations of both. But the conditions of the compact were flagrantly disregarded by the Dutch, and soon the relations of the repre- sentatives of the two nations were on a more
nearly all their factories from the archipelago, p'ive years later the factory at Bantam was, however, re-established as a subordinate agency to Surat. It was subsequently (in 1634-
SPECIMENS OF THE MALAY KBIS.
Company's agents. In 1619 a treaty was con- cluded between the English and the Dutch Governments with a view to preventing the disastrous disputes which had impeded the
The Red Dragon, Captain ^^-^''^^ ^^ xl^c ktr^at
Anno loOi- -^
unfavourable footing than ever. Up to this time, says Sir George Birdwood, the English Company had no territory in sovereign right in the Indies excepting the island of Lantore or Great Banda. This island was governed by a commercial agent who had under him 30 Europeans as clerks, and these, with 250 armed Malays, constituted the only force by which it was protected. In the islands of Banda, Pulo Roon, and Rosengyn, and at Macassar and Achin and Bantam, the Company's factories and agents were without any military defence. In 1620, notwithstanding the Treaty of Defence, the Dutch expelled the English from Pulo Roon and Lantore, and in 1621 from Bantam. On the 17th February, 1622-23, occurred the famous massacre of Araboyna, which remained as a deep stain on the English name until it was wiped out by Cromwell in the Treaty of West- minster of 1654. In 1624 the English, unable to oppose the Dutch any longer, withdrew
35) again raised to an independent presidency, and for some years continued to be the chief seat of the Company's power in the Straits. The factory was long a thorn in the Dutch side, and they adopted a characteristic method to extract it. In 1677 the Sultan of Bantam had weakly shared the regal power with his son. This act led to dissensions between parent and child, and finally to open hostilities. The Dutch favoured the young Sultan and actively assisted him. The English threw the weight of their influence into the scale in favour of the father. They acted on the sound general principle of up- holding the older constituted authority ; but either from indecision or weakness they re- frained from giving more than moral support to iheir pro lege. When, as subsequently happened, the young Sultan signally defeated his father and seated himself firmly on the throne as the sole ruler of the State, they paid the penalty of their lack of initiative by losing their pied ,'i terre in
16
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MAI>AYA
EUROPEAN TBADEES AT THE COURT OF AN EASTERN PRINCE.
Bantam. On April I, 1682, the factory was taken possession of by a party of Dutch soldiers, and on the 12th August following the
to repair the mischief caused by the Dutch. The outcome of their deliberations with the authorities at the Western India factory was
VIEW OF THE ISLAND OF BANDA.
agent and his council were deported in Dutch vessels to Batavia. A twelvemonth later the expropriated officials were at Surat, attempting
the despatch of a mission, headed by Messrs. Ord and Cawley, two expert officials, to Achin, to set up, if possible, a factory there to take the
place of the one which had existed at Bantam. On arrival at their destination the envoys found established upon the throne a line of queens. The fact that a female succession had been adopted is thought by Marsden, the historian of Sumatra, to have been due to the influence exercised by our Queen Elizabeth, whose won- derful success against the Spanish arms had carried her fame to the archipelago, where the Spanish and Portuguese power was feared and hated. However that may be, the English mission was received with every mark of respect by the reigning Queen — Anayet Shah. Suspicions appear to have been entertained by the visitors that her Majesty was not a woman, but a eunuch dressed up in female apparel. Marsden, however, thinks that they were mis- taken in their surmise, and he cites a curious incident related in the record drawn up by Messrs. Ord and Cawley of their proceedings as conclusive evidence that his view is the correct one. " We went to give an audience at the palace this day as customary," write the envoys ; " being arrived at the place of audience with the Orang Kayos, the Queen was pleased to order us to come nearer, when her Majesty was very inquisitive into the use of our wearing periwigs, and what was the convenience of them, to all of which we returned satisfactory answers. After this her Majesty desired of Mr. Ord, if it were no affront to him, that he should take off his periwig that she might see how he appeared without it ; which, according
TWENTIETH CENTURY TMrRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
17
to her Majesty's request, he did. She then told us she had heard of our business, and would give her answer by the Orang Kayos, and so
proof against English determination. Gra- dually but surely the East India Company's authority at the chosen centres was consoli-
VIBW AT BANTAM, ISLAND OF JAVA. (From \\\ Alexander's drawings to illustrate Lord Macartney's Embassy to China.)
we retired." The Queen's reply was a favour- able one, but circumstances rendered it un- necessary to proceed further with the scheme of establishing a factory in Achin. It chanced that the visit of the English mission coincided with the arrival in Achin of a number of chiefs of Priaman and other places on the West Coast of Sumatra, and these, hearing of the English designs, offered a site for a factory, with the exclusive right of purchasing their pepper. Mr. Ord readily listened to their proposals, and he ultimately got the chiefs to embark with him for Madras, for the purpose of completing a formal arrangement. The business was carried through by the Governor of Madras in the beginning of the year 1685 on the terms proposed. Subse- quently an expedition was fitted out with the object of establishing the factory at Priaman. A short time before it sailed, however, an invi- tation was received at Madras from the chiefs of Beng Kanlu (Bencoolen) to make a settle- ment there. In view of the fact that a consider- able portion of the pepper that was formerly exported from Bantam came from this spot, it was deemed advisable that Mr. Ord should iirst proceed there. The English expedition arrived at Bencoolen on June 25, 168S, and Mr. Ord took charge of the territory assigned to the Company. Afterwards other settlements were formed at Indrapura and Manjuta. At Priaman the Dutch had anticipated the English action, and the idea of establishing a settlement there had to be abandoned. The Dutch also astutely prevented the creation of another English trading centre at Batang-Kapas in 1686. The unfriendly disposition shown in these instances was part of a deliberate policy of crushing out English trade in the Straits. Where factories had been founded the Dutch sought to nullify them by establishing themselves in the neighbour- hood and using the utmost influence to prevent the country people from trading with them. Their machinations were not in the long run
dated, and within a few years Bencoolen assumed an aspect of some prosperity. But its progress was limited by an unhealthy situation, and by natural disadvantages of a more serious character. In the beginning of the eighteenth century the old settlement was abandoned in favour of a better site about three miles away on the bay of Bencoolen.. The new town, to
of dignity by reason of the circumstance that it was the headquarters of the Company's power in these regions. But \ature never intended it for a great commercial entrepot, and of the leading factories of the East India Company it represents probably the most signal failure.
In the early half of the eighteenth century the course of British commerce in the Straits ran smoothly. It is not until we reach the year 1752 that we find any event of importance in the record. At that period a forward policy was initiated, and two new settlements were established on the Smnatra coast. To one the designation of Natal was given ; the other was founded at Tappanuli. Natal in its time was an important factory, but as a centre of British commerce it has long since passed into the limbo of forgotten things. In 1760, during our war with France, a French fleet under Comte d'Estaing visited the Straits and destroyed all the East India Company's settlements on the Sumatra coast. But the mischief was subse- quently repaired, and the British rights to the occupied territory were formally recognised in the Treaty of Paris of 1763. Up to this period Bencoolen had been subordinate to Madras, an arrangement which greatly militated against its successful administration. The establishment was now formed into an independent presi- dency, and provided with a charter for the creation of a mayor's court. The outbreak of the war with Holland brought the station into special prominence. In.i7Si an expedition was despatched from it to operate against the Dutch estabUshments. It resulted in the seizure of Pedang and other important points in Sumatra. The British power was now practi- cally supreme on the Sumatran coasts. But it
ANJOBE POINT, STRAITS OF SUNDA. (From Alexander's drawings at the India Office.)
which the designation Fort Marlborough was given, was an improvement on the original settlement, and it attained to a certain position
had long been felt that an extension of British influence and power beyond Sumatra was desirable in the interests of a growing com-
18
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MAT.AVA
merce in the Straits and for the protection of our important China trade. The occupation of Pinang in 1786, in circumstances which will be detailed at a later stage of our narrative, was
its possession less burdensome. It continued to the end of its existence a serious drag on the Company's finances. The year 1804 is memorable in Straits history
SIB T. STAMFORD RAFFLES. (From the portrait by G. F. Joseph, .A.R.A., in the Xiitional Portrait Gallery.)
Street. There he remained until the occupa- tion of Pinang gave him the opportunity, for which his ardent spirit longed, of service abroad. He went out with high hopes and an invincible determination to justify the con- fidence reposed in him. His spare momenls on the voyage were occupied in learning the Malay language and studying Malay literature. Thus he was able to land with more than a casual equipment for the work he had to do. At Pinang he continued his linguistic studies, with such good effect that in a short time he was an acknowledged authority on Malayan customs. His exceptional ability did not pass without recognition. Through Dr. Leyden, who had formed Raffles's acquaintance in Pinang, Lord Minto, then Governor-General of India, heard of this brilliant young official who was making so distinguished a reputation in paths not usually trodden by the Company's junior servants. A visit to Calcutta in 1807 by Raffles was an indirect consequence of the introduction. Lord Minto received the young man kindly, and discussed with him the question of the extension of British influence in the Malay Archipelago. Raffles ended by so im- pressing the statesman with his grasp of the situation that the latter conferred upon him the position of Governor-General's Agent in the Eastern seas. This extraordinary mark of favour was completely justified when, four years later. Lord Minto conducted in person an expedition for the conquest of Java. The expe- ditionary force consisted of nearly six thousand British and as many Indian troops. Ninety ships were required for the transport of the force, which was at the time the largest ever sent to those seas by a European Power.
the result. Nine years later Malacca, captured from the Dutch, was added to our possessions. These important centres gave a new strength and significance to our position in the Straits. But no change was made in the administrative system until 1802, when an Act of Parliament was passed authorising the East India Com- pany to make their settlement at Fort Marl- borough a factory subordinate to the presidency of Fort William in Bengal, and to transfer to Madras the servants who, on the reduction of the establishment, should be supernumerary. The change was prompted by economical con- siderations. Bencoolen had always been a very expensive appanage of the East India Company, and the progress of events did not tend to make
as marking the advent to this important centre of British influence of one who has carved in indelible letters his name and fame upon British colonial history. In September of that year there landed at Pinang Thomas Stamford Raffles, the man to whom more than to any other Britain owes her present proud position in the Straits of Malacca. Raffles came out with no other advantages than his natural endowments. The son of a sea captain en- gaged in the West India trade, he was born on board his father's ship on July 5, 1781. His educational training was of the briefest. After a few years' schooling at Hammersmith he, at the early age of fourteen, entered the East India Company's service as a clerk in Leadenhall
THE FIRST EARL OF MINTO.
(From a portrait bv James Atkinson in the National Portrait Gallery.)
Raffles was chosen by Lord Minto as his chief intelligence officer. He discharged his part with the zeal and acumen which distinguished him. But it was a time for all of great anxiety.
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
10
as the surveys of the archipelago at that period were very inadequate, and no small peril attended the navigation of so considerable a fleet of transports as that which carried the expeditionary force. The course which Raflles advised for the passage of the ships was severely criticised by naval authorities. But Lord Minto placed confidence in his intelligence officer's knowledge and judgment, and elected to take his advice. The result was the trium- phant vindication of Rafdes. The fleet, sailing from Malacca on June ii, 1811, reached Batavia early in August without a serious casualty of any kind ; and the army, landing on the 4th of that month, occupied Batavia on the gth, and on the 25th inflicted a signal defeat on the Dutch forces under General Janssens. The battle so completely broke the power of the Dutch that Lord Minto within six weeks was ' able to re-embark for India. Before leaving he marked his sense of Raffles's services by appointing him Lieutenant-Governor of the newly conquered territory. Raflles's admini- stration of Java brought out his greatest qualities. Within a remarkably short time he had evolved order out of chaos and placed the dependency on the high road to affluent pros- perity. When at the end of fi.ve years the time came for him to lay down the reins of office, he left the island with an overflowing treasury and a trade flourishing beyond precedent. Return- ing to England in 18 l6 with health somewhat impaired by his arduous work in the tropics, Raffles hoped for a tangible recognition of his brilliant services. But his success had excited jealousy, and there were not wanting detractors who called in question certain aspects of his administration. It is unnecessary for present purposes to go into those forgotten con- troversies. Suffice it to say that the attacks were so far successful that no better position could be found for Raffles than the Lieutenant- Governorship of Bencoolen, a centre whose obscurity had become more marked since the occupation of Pinang.
Raffles assumed the office which had been entrusted to him with the cheerful zeal which was characteristic of the man. But even his sanguine temperament was not proof against the gloomy influences which pervaded the place. An earthquake which had occurred just before he landed had done great damage to the station, and this disaster had accentuated he forlornness of the outlook. Raffles drew a vivid picture of the scene which confronted him in a letter written on April 7, 1818, a few days after landing. " This," he wrote, •' is without exception the most wretched place I ever beheld . . . the roads are impassable, the highways in the town overrun with rank grass, the Government house a den of ravenous dogs and polecats. The natives say that Ben- coolen is now a Taiii mati (dead land). In truth I could never have conceived anything half so bad. We will try and make it better, and if I am well supported from home the West Coast may yet be turned to account." The moral condition of the place was in keep- ing with its physical aspect. Public gaming and cock-fighting were not only practised
under the eye of the chief authority, but pub- licly patronised by the Government. This laxity had its natural consequences in an excess of criminality. Murders were daily committed and robberies perpetrated which were never traced ; profligacy and immorality obtruded themselves in every direction.'
The truth is that Bencoolen at this time was decaying of its own rottenness. Throughout its existence it had been a sink of corruption and official extravagance, and these qualities had honeycombed it to a point almost of com- plete destruction. A story familiar in the Straits illustrates aptly the traditions of the station. At one period there was a serious discrepancy — amounting to several thousand dollars — between the sum to the credit of the public account and the specie in hand. Naturally the authorities in Leadenhall Street demanded an explanation of this unpleasant circumstance. They were told that the blame was due to white ants, though it was left to conjecture whether the termites had demolished the money or simply the chest which contained it. The directors made no direct comment upon this statement, but a little later despatched to Bencoolen, unasked, a consignment of files. At a loss to know why these articles had been sent out, the Bencoolen officials sought au explanation. Then they were blandly told that they were to be used against the teeth of the white ants should the insects again prove troublesome. It is probable that this was a sort of Leadenhall Street Roland for a Ben- coolen Oliver, for just previous to this incident the home authorities had made themselves ridiculous by solemnly enjoining the Bencoolen officials to encourage the cultivation of white pepper, that variety being most valuable. On that occasion it had been brought home to the dense Leadenhall Street mind that black and white pepper are from identical plants, the difference of colour only arising from the method of preparation, the latter being allowed to ripen on the vine, while the former is plucked when green. Mistakes of the character of this one, it appears, were not uncommon in the relations of the headquarters with Ben- coolen. An almost identical incident is brought to light in one of Raffles's letters. After he had been some time at Bencoolen a ship was sent out to him with definite instructions that it should be loaded exclusively with pepper. Owing to its extreme lightness, pepper alone is an almost impossible cargo, and it was the practice to ship it with some heavy commodity. Acting on these principles. Raffles, in anticipa- tion of the vessel's arrival, had accumulated a quantity of sugar for shipment. But in view of the peremptoriness of his orders he withdrew it, and the vessel eventually sailed with the small consignment of pepper which was pos- sible having regard to the safety of the vessel.
Bencoolen from the beginning to the end of its existence as an English trading centre was but a costly white elephant to the East India Company. Raffles's opinion upon it was that " it was certainly the very worst selection that could have been made for a settlement. It is
I " Memoir of Sir T. Stamford Raftles," p. ^97.
completely shut out of doors ; the soil is, com- paratively with the other Malay countries, in- ferior ; the population scanty ; neighbourhood or passing trade it has none ; and further, it wants a harbour, to say nothing of its long reputed unhealthiness and the undesirable state of ruin into which it has been allowed to run." ' Yet at this period the administration of the settlement involved an expenditure of ;f 100,000 a year, and the only return for it, as Raffles contemptuously put it, was "a few tons of pepper." In the view of the energetic young administrator the drawbacks of the place were accentuated by the facility with which the pepper trade was carried on by the Americans without any settlement of any kind. In a letter to Marsden, with whom he kept up an active correspondence, Raffles wrote under date April 28, 1818 : "There have been no less than nine- teen Americans at the northern ports this sea- son, and they have taken away upwards of 60,000 pekuls of pepper at nine dollars. It is quite ridiculous for us to be confined to this spot in order to secure the monopoly of 500 tons, while ten times that amount may be secured next door without any establishment at all."
The wonder is that, with practically no ad- vantages to recommend it, and with its serious drawbacks, Bencoolen should so long have remained the Company's headquarters. The only reasonable explanation is that the directors held it as a- counterpoise to Ihe Dutch power in these waters. Dutch policy aimed at an abso- lute monopoly, and it was pursued with an arrogance and a greed which made it impera- tive on the guardians of British interests in these latitudes that it should be resisted with determination. Resisted it was, as the records show, through long years, but it cannot truly be said that in dissipating energies and sub- stance at Bencoolen the Company adopted a sensible course. By their action, indeed, they postponed for an unnecessarily protracted period the seating of British power in the Straits in a position adequate to the great trade and the commanding political interests which Britain even at that period had in the East. But no doubt the consolidation of our position in India absorbed the energies and the resources of the Company in the eighteenth century, and prevented them from taking that wider view which was essential. That the authorities in India were not unmindful of the importance of extending British influence in the Straits is shown by the readiness with which, when the value of the position had been brought home to them by Light, they took the necessary steps to occupy Pinang in 1786. Still, the full lesson of statesmanship had yet to be taught them, as is indicated by the fact that within eight years of the hoisting of the British flag on Prince of Wales Island, as it was officially designated, its abandonment in favour of a station on the Andamans was seriously proposed. It re- mained for Raffles to teach that lesson. How his instruction was given and the results which flowed from it, are matters which must be dealt with in a separate section.
' Ibid., p. 463.
20
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
SINGAPORE.
CHAPTER.!.
The Occupation axd the Fight against Dutch Pretensions and Official Jealousy.
THE retrocession of Malacca under the terms of the Treaty of Vienna was almost universally felt throughout the Straits to be a great blow to British political and com- mercial influence. Regarded at home as a mere pawn to be lightly sacrificed on the diplomatic chess-board, the settlement through- out the Eastern seas enjoyed a prestige second to that of hardly any other port east of Cal- cutta, and its loss to those on the spot appeared a disaster of the first magnitude. There was substantial reason for the alarm excited. The situation of the settlement in the very centre of the Straits gave its owners the practical com- mand of the great highway to the Far East. It was the historic centre of power to which all Malaya had long been accustomed to look as the seat of European authority ; it was a com- mercial emporium which for centuries had attracted to it the trade of these seas. But these were not the only considerations which tinged the minds of the British community in the Straits with apprehension when they thought over the surrender of the port, with all that it implied. From the Dutch settle- ments across the sea were wafted with every
man, the Governor of Pinang, to number twelve thousand men, including a considerable proportion of highly-trained European troops,
CHANTREY'S BUST OF SIB STAMFOED
RAFFLES.
(From the " Memoir of Sir T. Stamford Raffles.")
had been concentrated in Netherlands India. With it was <i powerful naval squadron, well manned and equipped. These and other cir- cumstances which were brought to light indi-
THE ROADS, BATAVIA. (I'Yom Von de Velde's " Gesigtenuit Neerlands Indie.")
ship rumours of preparations which were being made for the new regime which the reoccupa- tion of Malacca was to usher in. An imposing military force, estimated by Colonel Banner-
cated that the reoccupation of Malacca was to be the signal for a fresh effort on the part of Ihe Dutch to secure that end for which they had been struggling for two centuries— the
absolute domination of the Straits of Malacca and of the countries bordering upon that great waterway.
One of the first public notes of alarm at the ominous activity of the Dutch was sounded by the commercial men of Pinang. On June 8, 1818, the merchants of that place sent a me- morial to Government inviting the attention of the Governor to the very considerable inter- course now carried on by British subjects in India " with the countries of Perak, Salangore, and Riho in the Straits of Malacca, and the island of Singha, and Pontiana and other ports on the island of Borneo," and suggesting— in view of the transfer of Malacca and the pro- bable re-adoption by the Dutch of their old exclusive policy, by which they would " endea- vour to make such arrangements with, and to obtain such privileges from, the kings or chiefs of those countries as might preclude British subjects from the enjoyment of the present advantageous commerce they now carry on " — the expediency of the British Government " endeavouring to make such amicable commer- cial treaties and alliances with the kings and chiefs of these places as may effectually secure to British subjects the freedom of commerce with those countries, if not on more favourable terms, which, from the almost exclusive trade British subjects have carried on with them for these twenty years past, we should suppose they might even be disposed to concede."'
There is no evidence that any formal reply was ever made to this representation, but. that it was not without fruit is shown by the subse- quent action of the Government. They penned an earnest despatch to the Supreme Govern- ment, deploring the cession of the port and pointing out the serious effect the action taken was likely to have on British trade and prestige. Meanwhile Mr. Cracroft, Malay translator to the Government, was sent on a mission to Perak and Selangor, with instructions to con- clude treaties if possible with the chiefs of those States. At the same tiine a despatch was forwarded to Major Farquhar, the British Resi- dent at Malacca, directing him to conduct a similar mission to Riau, Lingen, Pontiana, and Slack. Mr. Cracroft, after a comparatively brief absence, returned with treaties executed by both the chiefs to whom he was accredited. Major Farquhar's mission proved a far more difficult one. Embarking at Malacca on July 19th, he made Pontiana his first objective, as he had heard of the despatch of a Dutch expedition from Batavia to the same place, and was anxious to anticipate it if possible. He, how- ever, brought up off Riau for the purpose of delivering letters, announcing his mission, to the Raja Muda, the ruling authority of the place, and to the Sultan of Lingen, who conld be reached from that quarter. After a tedious passage he arrived at Pontiana on August 3rd, but, to his mortification, found that the Dutch had anticipated him and had occupied the place. Dissembling his feelings as best he
» " Straits Settlements Records," Xo. 66
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
21
could, he after a brief interval weighed anchor and directed his course to Lingen. Here he was told that the political authority was vested in the Raja Muda of Riau, to whom applica- tion for the treaty must be made. Acting on the suggestion, Farquhar went to Riau, and concluded what he then regarded as a very satisfactory arrangement. Subsequently he visited Bukit Bahoo in Slack, and concluded a like treaty there on August 31st. Returning to Malacca, Farquhar forwarded the treaties to Pinang with a covering despatch of much inte- rest in the light of subsequent events. In this communication the writer expressed his desire to put before the Governor of Pinang some considerations relative to the situation created by the retrocession to the Dutch of Malacca, " the Key of the Straits " — an event which, in his view, could not be too much deplored. The provident measures adopted of concluding alliances with native States would, he said, prove of much ultimate benefit in preserving an open and free trade. But however strong might be the attachment of the native chiefs to the British, and however much they might desire to preserve the terms of the treaties inviolate, it would be quite impossible for them to do so unless strenuously supported and pro- tected by our influence and authority. In the circumstances it seemed to him that " the most feasible, and indeed almost only, method to counteract the evils which at present threaten to annihilate all free trade to the Eastern Archipelago would be by the formation of a new settlement to the eastward of Malacca." " From the observations I have been able to make on my late voyage, as well as from former experience, there is," Farquhar con- tinued, " no place which holds ■ out so many advantages in every way as do the Kariman Islands, which are so situate as to be a com- plete key to the Straits of Sincapore, Dryon, and Soban, an advantage which no other place in the Straits of Malacca possesses, as all trade, whether coming from the eastward or west- ward, must necessarily pass through one or other of the above straits. A British settle- ment, therefore, on the Karimans, however small at first, would, I am convinced, very soon become a port of great consequence, and not only defray its own expenses, but yield in time an overplus revenue to Government." The ~ Karimuns, Farquhar went on to say, were un- inhabited, but as they were attached to the dominions of the Sultan of Johore, he suggested that means should be adopted of obtaining a regular transfer of the islands from that potentate.
In forwarding Farquhar's despatches to the Governor-General, Colonel Bannerman drew attention in serious terms to the menace of the Dutch policy in regard to native States. He pointed out that they had twelve thousand troops in their possessions, and that the pre- sence of this force between India and China involved a distinct danger to British interests. He did not, however, support Farquhar's sug- gestion in regard to the Karimun Islands, on the ground that " the expense of maintaining a settlement on an uninhabited island would be enormous," and that "the insulated situation of Kariman and its remoteness from all support would require a considerable military force to
guard it against the large fleets of piratical prows infesting that part of the Straits, as well as against the nations of the adjoining coun- tries."
Finally he stated that the subject was under the consideration of the Government of Bengal.
In a later despatch, dated the 7th of Novem-
THB STRAITS OF STJNDA. (From a sketch in the India Office.)
Before he had received any intimation as to the views held by Colonel Bannerman, Far- quhar, deeming that the matter was one of urgency, took upon himself the responsibility of writing to the Raja Muda of Riau, asking him if he were willing to forward the transfer of the Karimun Islands to the British. The Raja replied cautiously that, though he had no objection to the British examining the islands, he did not deem himself in a position to come to any definitive arrangement. In transmitting this information to Colonel Bannerman, Far- quhar reasserted the desirability of acquiring the Karimuns, and stated that he thought a small force — " two companies of native in- fantry, with a proportion of artillery assisted by a few hundred convicts " — would be suffi- cient to garrison it.
While the arrangements for the transfer of Malacca were in progress a claim was raised by the Dutch to the suzerainty of Riau and Perak on the ground that they were depen- dencies of Malacca, and reverted to them with that settlement, in spite of the fact that imm.e- diately after the capture of Malacca in 1795 the Sultan of Riau was restored to the full enjoyment of his sovereign rights by the British.
Farquhar, writing from Malacca to Banner- man on the 22nd of October, stated that he had been questioned by the Dutch Commissioners as to the intentions of his Government in regard to the formation of a settlement to the eastward of Malacca, and had informed them officially that friendly communications had already been made with the constituted authorities of Lingen and Riau, and their permission obtained for examining and surveying the Karimun and neighbouring islands, and also a general con- currence in the views of his Government.
ber, Farquhar enclosed a communication from the Dutch Commissioners raising definitely the question of the vassalage of the States of Lingen, Riau, &c., arising out of old treaties said to have been formed with those States thirty or forty years previously. In the letter from the Dutch was intimated in the most explicit terms a firm determination on the part of their Government not to permit the Raja of Johore, Pahang, &c., to cede to the British the smallest portion of his heredi- tary possessions.
In a despatch dated November 21, 1818, Bannerman forwarded Farquhar's letter and the Dutch Commissioners' communication to the Governor-General with the remark, " No sanction or authority has been given to Major Farquhar to negotiate for the Kariman Islands, or even to discuss the question with the Dutch authorities." "My letters to' the Governor- General," Bannerman added, " exemplify to his Excellency in Council rather the prevalence of an opinion adverse to their occupation than any sanction to the discussion of the question itself." The communication proceeded : " It appears to the Governor in Council that the late discussions have had a tendency to stamp the Kariman Islands with a degree of impor- tance which their value cannot sanction ; but at the same time they have led to a more complete development of the views of general aggran- disement with which the Netherlands Govern- ment are actuated, and it may be feared that the pretensions of that Power to the undivided sovereignty in the Eastern seas, or the tenacity with which they are prepared to support their claims, will be productive of considerable dis- advantage to British interests unless counter- acted by timely arrangements."
Such was the position of events at the end of
22 TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
November as far as Pinang was concerned. But in the interval between the first raising of the question and the transmission of Colonel Bannerraan's warning despatch to the Gover- nor-General there had been important develop- ments in another quarter.
In the early days of his exile at Bencoolen, brooding over the situation in which the Treaty of Vienna had placed British power in the Straits, Raffles was quick to see that the time had come for a new departure in policy if British power was to hold its own in this part of the globe. His earliest correspondence from the settlement indicates his anxiety on the point. In a letter dated April 14, 1818, and despatched a week or two after his arrival, he wrote : " The Dutch possess the only passes through which ships must sail into this archi- pelago, the Straits of Sinida and of Malacca ; and the British have not now an inch of ground to stand upon between the Cape of Good Hope and China, nor a single friendly port at which they can water or obtain refresh- ments. It is indispensable that some regular and accredited authority on the part of the British Government should exist in. the archi- pelago, to declare and maintain the British rights, whatever they are, to receive appeals, and to exercise such wholesome control as may be conducive to the preservation of the British honour and character. At present the authority of the Government of Prince of Wales Island extends no further than Malacca, and the Dutch would willingly confine that of Bencoolen to the almost inaccessible and rocky shores of the West Coast of Sumatra. To effect the objects contemplated some con- venient station within the archipelago is neces- sary ; both Bencoolen and Prince of Wales Island are too far removed, and unless we succeed in obtaining a position in the Straits of Sunda, we have no alternative but to fix it in the most advantageous position we can find within the archipelago ; this would be some- where in the neighbourhood of Bintang." ■
Bintang, or Bentan as it is now called, is an island in the Riau Strait, about 30 miles from Singapore at the nearest point. The reference shows that Raffles had a clear conception of the importance of a good strategic as well as a favourable trading position, and knew exactly where this was to be found. There is reason to think that he actually had Singapore in his mind even at this early period. His corre- spondence suggests that his thoughts had long been cast in that direction, and other circum- stances make it inherently probable that a definite scheme for establishing a British settlement there was actually formed by him before he left England. The point is not very material. Even assuming that Raffles had not the undivided honour of discovering, or, more properly, rediscovering, Singapore, it was beyond all reasonable question he who gave the proposal for the occupation of the point living force, and ensured its success by a series of well-planned and cleverly executed measures, followed by the initiation of an administrative policy marked by statesmanlike judgment.
Once having got into his mind the idea of the necessity of counteracting Dutch influence ' " Memoir of Sir T. S. Raffles," p. 307.
by the establishment of a new settlement. Rallies, with characteristic energy, proceeded to enlist the support of the authorities. Within a few months of his landing at Bencoolen he was on his wa\' to India to lay his plans before the Supreme.Government. At Calcutta he had several conferences with the Marquess of Hastings, the then Governor-General, and put before him the case for the adoption of a forward policy. He advocated, his biographer says, no ambitious scheme. " In his own words, he neither wanted people nor territory ; all he asked was permission to anchor a line-of- battle ship and hoist the English flag at the mouth either of the Straits of .Malacca or of Sunda, by which means the trade of England would be secured and the monopoly of the Dutch broken." ' As a result of the discussions it was decided to concede to the Dutch their pretensions in Sumatra, to leave to them the
FRANCIS BAWDON, FIRST MARQUESS
OF HASTINGS.
(From an engraving by Clent in the British Museum.)
exclusive command of the Straits of Sunda, and " to limit interference to measures of precaution by securing a free trade with the archipelago and China through the Straits of Malacca." In order to effect this and at the same time to protect the political and com- mercial interests in the Eastern seas gene- rally, it was deemed essential that some central station should be occupied to the southward of Malacca. Finally, it was agreed that Raffles should be the agent of the Governor-General to carry out the policy decided upon, and Major Farquhar was directed by the Calcutta Govern- ment to postpone his departure and join Raffles in his mission. Raffles, wriling to Marsden under date Xovember 14, 1818, himself sums up the results of his mission in this way : " I have now to inform you that it is determined to keep the command of the Straits of Malacca by establishments at .-\chin and Rhio, and that I leave Calcutta in a fortnight as the agent to effect this important object. Achin I conceive ' Ibid., p. 370.
to be completely within our power, but the j Dutch may be beforehand with us at Rhio. They took possession of Pontiano and Malacca 5' in July and August last, and have been bad politicians if they have so long left Rhio open to us." In a letter penned twelve days later to the Duchess of Somerset, Raffles says : " I have at last succeeded in making the authorities in Bengal sensible of their supineness in allowing * the Dutch to exclude us from the Eastern seas, «' but I fear it is now too late to retrieve what we have lost. I have full powers to do all that we can ; and if anything is to be done I think I need not assure your grace that it shall be done and quickly done." It seems probable that in the interval between these two letters informa- tion had reached Calcutta of the Dutch occupa- •« tion of Rhio (Riau). Whether so or not. Raffles, ,.i- it is clear from a later letter addressed to Marsr den froin " off the Sandheads " on December 12, 1818, had by the time he started on his homewaid voyage turned his thoughts from Riau in the direction of Singapore. " We are now," he writes, " on our way to the eastward in the hope of doing something, but I much fear that the Dutch have hardly left us an inch of ground to stand upon. My attention is prin- cipally turned to Johore, and you must not be surprised if my next letter to you is dated from the site of the ancient city of Singapura." This letter is important as an indication that Raffles's designs were tending towards Singapore before he left Calcutta and had had an opportunity of consulting Major Farquhar.
On arrival at Pinang, Raffles found a very discouraging situation. He was met with the probably not unexpected news that the Dutch had compelled the Rajas of Riau and Lingen . to admit their troops into the former settlement and to permit their colours to fly at Lingen, Pahang, and Johore ; while an additional example of their aggressiveness was supplied by the arrest of the Sultan of Palembang and the occupation of his capital wiih a thousand troops, five hundred of whom were Europeans in a high state of discipline. In. transmitting information of these acts to the Governor- General, Colonel Bannerman had penned a despatch in terms which were no doubt com- municated to Sir Stamford Raflles. In this document the Governor of Pinang observed that he thought that the Dutch action "must prove to the Supreme Government the full nature of those encroachments and monopolies to which these acts wiU naturally tend. The Governor in Council was satisfied that nothing less than the uncontrolled and absolute posses- sion of the Eastern trade would satisfy the rapacious policy of the Dutch Government." The despatch went on to point out that the Dutch had now complete control of every port ■ eastward of Pinang, and had besides every means, in a very superior military and naval armament, to frustrate any attempt of the British Government " to negotiate even a common commercial alliance with any one of the Stales in the Eastern seas." Finally the despatch despairingly remarked, " To effect therefore among them any political arrange: . ments as a counterpoise to the influence of that nation, it is needless to disguise, is now beyond the power of the British Government in India." These concluding words supply a keynote to
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
23
the attitude of Colonel Bannermaii. He had clearly been overwhelmingly impressed with Dutch activity and the resolution with which they pursued their aims, and thought that the position was beyond retrieval. He was not a strong official. His despatches show him to have been an opinionated and somewhat irascible man, intolerant of criticism, and, though genial in his social relations, endowed with more than a common share of official arrogance. Mingled with these qualities was a constitutional timidity which prevented him from taking any course which involved risk or additional responsibility. He was, in fine, the very worst type of administrator to deal with a crisis such as that which had arisen in the Straits. In receiving Raffles and com- municating his views on the complicated situation that had developed, he seems to have given full rein to his pessimism. He was, indeed, so entirely convinced that the position was irretrievable that he had apparently made up his mind to thwart Raffles's mission by every means in his power. It is doing no injustice to him to say that wedded to a sincere belief in the futility of further action was a feeling of soreness that this important undertaking had been launched without refer- ence to him and placed under the charge of an official who held a less exalted position than himself. In the recorded correspondence" between himself and Raffles we find him at the very ovitset taking up a position of almost violent hostility and obstructiveness. The con- troversy was 'opened by a letter addressed by Bannerman to Raffles immediately after the latter's arrival, detailing the acts of Dutch aggressiveness and affirming the undesirability of further prosecuting the mission in the circumstances. To this Rafiles replied on January i, 1819, saying that although Riau was preoccupied, " the island of Sincapore and the districts of Old Johore and the Straits of Indiigeeree on Sumatra offer eligible points for establishing the required settlement," and declaring his inclination to the policy of pro- ceeding at once to the eastward with a respectable and efficient force. Bannerman, in answer to this communication, wrote on the 3rd of January protesting against Raffles's pro- posed action and refusing to grant the demand which apparently had been made for a force of 500 men to assist him in carrying out his designs. In taking up this strong line Banner- man does not appear to have carried his entire Council with him. One member — Mr. Erskine — expressed his dissent and drew upon himself in consequence the wrath of his chief, who in a fiery minute taunted him with vacillation on the ground that he had at the outset been in agreement with his colleagues as to the in- advisability of the prosecution of the mission. Raffles was not the man to be readily thwarted, and we find him on the 4th of January directing a pointed inquiry to Bannerman as to whether he positively declined to aid him. Thus brought to bay, the Governor found it expedient to temporise. He wrote saying thai he was willing to give military aid, but that he did so only on Raffles's statement that he had authority from the Governor-General apart from the written instructions, Ihe terms of ' "Straits Settlements Records," No. 182A.
which were relied upon by Bannerman as justifying the attitude he had assumed. The bitter, unreasonable spirit which Raffles en- countered produced upon him a natural feeling of depression. " God only knows," he wrote to Marsden on January 16, 1819, "where next you may hear from me, but as you will be happy to learn of the progress of my mission, I will not lose the present opportunity of in- forming you how 1 go on. Whether anything
to his destination, but that he had a definite idea in his mind appears from a letter he wrote the same day to Mi-. Adam, the Secretary to the Supreme Government. In this he said: "The island of Sincapore, independently of the straits and harbour of Johore, which it both forms and commands, has, on its southern shores, and by means of the several small islands which lie off it, excellent anchorage and smaller harbours, and seems in every
COLONEL BANNERMAN. (From an original drawing in the possession of tlie Rev. J. H. Bannsrman, Vicar of St. Stephen's, Congleton, Cheshire.)
is to be done to the eastward or inot is yet very uncertain. By neglecting to occupy the place we lost Rhio, and shall have difficulty in establishing ourselves elsewhere, but I shall certainly attempt it. At Achin the difficulties I shall have to surmount in the performance of my duty will be great and the annoyance severe, but I shall persevere steadily in what I conceive to be my duty." In this letter to Marsden ignorance is professed by Raffles as
respect most peculiarly adapted for our object. Its position in the Straits of Sincapore is far more convenient and commanding than even Rhio for our China trade, passing down the Straits of Malacca, and every native vessel that sails through the Straits of Rhio must pass in sight of it." Raffles went on to say that there did not appear to be any objection "to a station at Sincapore, or on the opposite shore towards Point Romanea, or on any other of the smaller
24
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
VIEW OF THE JUNGLE, SINGAPORE.
(From Captain Bethune's "Views in tlie Eastern Archipelago.")
islands which he off this part of the coast. The larger harbour of Johore," he added, "is declared by professional men whom I have consulted, and by every Eastern trader of ex- perience to whom I have been able to refer, to be capacious and easily defensible, and the British flag once hoisted, there would be no want of supplies to meet the immediate neces- sities of our establishment."
Three days after the despatch of this letter Raffles sailed on his eventful mission. Major Farquhar, who from the records appears to have been at Pinang at the time, was com- pletely won over to his views — " seduced " is the phrase which Colonel Bannerman used later — and accompanied him. It says much for the strained character of the relations which existed at the moment between Raffles and the Pinang Government that in quitting the harbour the former neglected to notify his departure. Slipping their anchors, the four vessels of his little fleet left at night-time without a word from Raffles to the Govern- ment. His mission being a secret one of the highest importance, he probably felt indisposed to supply more information about his move- ments than was absolutely necessary to the hostile officialdom of Pinang. However that may be, the omission to give notice of sailing appears to have been part of a deliberate policy, for when some weeks later one of Raffles's vessels had again to leave port, its
commander departed without the customary formality, with the result that Colonel Banner- man penned a flaming despatch to the Governor-General invoking vengeance on the culprit.
The mystery in which Raffles's intentions and movements were, we may assume, pur- posely enshrouded at this period has resulted in the survival of a considerable amount of doubt as to the actual course of events. It has even been questioned whether he was actually present at Singapore when the British flag was hoisted for the first time. The records, however, are absolutely conclusive on this point. Indeed, there is so much direct evi- dence on this as well as on other aspects of the occupation that it is remarkable there should have been any room for controversy as to the leading part which Raffles played in the transaction.
When Raffles sailed from Pinang, it is probable that he had no fixed design in regard to any place. He knew generally what he wanted and he was determined to leave no stone unturned to accomplish his end. But beyond a leaning towards Singapore as in his view the best centre, he had, it would seem from the nature of his movements, an open mind on the question of the exact location of the new settlement. In the archives at the India Office" there exists a memorandum, I " Straits Settlements Records," Xo. lo.
drawn up by Mr. Benjamin S. Jones, who was at the time senior clerk at the Board of Control, detailing the circumstances which led up to the occupation of Singapore. This document is dated July 20, 1820, and it was probably pre- pared with a view to the discussion then proceeding with the Dutch as to the legality of the occupation. As a statement of the official views held at the time in regard to Raffles's action it is of peculiar interest, and it may be examined before we come to deal with the movements of -the mission. At the outset there is given this explanation of the causes which led to its despatch :
" The Governor-General in Council, deeming it expedient to secure the command of the Straits of Malacca in order to keep open a channel for British commerce, apparently endangered by the schemes of exclusive policy pursued by the Nethedandish Government, determined to despatch Sir T. S. Raffles for the purpose of improving the footing obtained at Rhio. In his instructions dated December 5, 1818, it was observed that if the Dutch had previously occupied Rhio it might be expedient to endeavour to establish a connection with the Sultan of Johore, but as so little was known respecting that chief, Sir T. S. Raffles was informed that it would be incumbent upon us to act with caution and circumspection before we entered into any engagements with him. It was further observed that there was some
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
25
reason to think that the Dutch would claim authority over the State of Johore by virtue of some old engagements, and though it was possible that the pretension might be success- fully combated, it would not be consistent with the policy and views of the Governor- General in Council to raise a question of this sort with the Netherlandish authorities. But in the event of his procuring satisfactory information concerning Johore, Sir T. S. Raffles was in- structed, on the supposition of Rhio being preoccupied by the Dutch, to open a negotia- tion with the chief of Johore on a similar basis to that contemplated at Rhio."
Then follows a relation of the circumstances under which Singapore was selected by Raffles.
" In order to avoid collision with the Dutch authorities. Sir T. S. Raffles determined to avoid Rhio, but to endeavour to establish a footing on some more unoccupied territory in which we might find a port and accommoda- tion for our troops, and where the British flag might be displayed pending a reference to the authorities in Europe. With this view he pro- ceeded to Singapore. On his arrival off the town a deputation came on board with the compliments and congratulations of the chief native authority and requested to know the object of the visit. Having inquired whether there was any Dutch settlement and flag at Singapore and at Johore, and whether the Dutch had by any means attempted to exercise an influence or authority over the ports, the deputation replied that Johore Lama, or Old Johore, had long been deserted ; that the chief authority over Singapore and all the adjacent islands (excepting those of Lingen and Rhio) then resided at the ancient capital of Singapore, where no attempts had yet been made to estabUsh the Dutch power and where no Dutch flag would be received."
Such were the bald facts of the occupation as officially related about eighteen months after the hoisting of the British flag in the ancient Malay capital. The account ma}' be supple- mented with evidence from other quarters. Nothing is said in Mr. Jones's memorandum about visits paid by the mission to any other spot than Singapore, but it is familiar know- ledge that before proceeding to Singapore Raffles put in at the Karimun Islands and at Slack. His reasons for visiting these places may be conjectured from the recital given of the events which preceded his arrival at Pinang. Major Farquhar, as we have seen, was strongly in favour of the establishment of a port on the Karimun Islands — so strongly, indeed, that he had gone beyond his official province to prepare the way for an occupation, if such were deemed desirable by the higher authorities. What would be more natural in the circumstances than that he should induce Raffles at the very earliest moment to visit the spot which had struck him on his voyage to Pontiana as being so peculiarly adapted to the purposes of the new settlement? Whatever the underlying motive, we have interesting evidence of the circumstance that the Karimuns were visited, and that Raffles found there ample and speedy proof that the port was entirely unsuitable. The facts are. set forth in a report dated March i, 1819, presented to the Pinang Government by Captain Ross, of the East
India Company's Marine. This ■ functionary, it appears, had on the 15th of January pro- ceeded to the Karimun Islands to carry out a survey in accordance with official instruc- tions, prompted, doubtless, by Major Farquhar's advocacy of the port. His report was entirely unfavourable to the selection of the islands. "The Small Kariman," he wrote, "rises abruptly from the water all round, and does not afford any situation for a settlement on it. The Great Kariman on the part nearest to the small one is also very steep, and from thence to the southward forms a deep bay, where the land is principally low and damp, with much mangrove along the shore, and three fathoms water at two and a half miles off. The channel between the two Karimans has deep water, fourteen and fifteen fathoms, in it, but it is too narrow to be used as a harbour." Sir Stamford Raffles was furnished with Captain Ross's opinion immediately on his arrival, and it was that apparently which caused him to turn his attention to Singapore. Recognising the value of expert marine opinion, he took Captain Ross with him across the Straits. The results of the survey which that officer made were embodied in a report, which may be given as an interesting historical document associated with the earliest days of the, life of the settle- ment. Captain Ross wrote :
"Singapore Harbour, situate four miles to .the NNE. of St. John's Island (in what is com- monly called SInapore Strait), will afford a safe anchorage to ships in . all seasons, and being clear of hidden danger, the approach to it is rendered easy by day or night. Its position is also favourable for commanding the naviga- tion of the strait, the track which the ships pursue being distant about five miles ; and it may be expected from its proximity to the Malayan islands and the China Sea that in a short time numerous vessels would resort to it for commercial purposes.
" At the anchorage ships are sheltered from ENE. round to north and west as far as SSW. by the south point of Johore, Singapoora, and many smaller islands extending to St. John's, and thence round to the north point of Batang (bearing ESE.) by the numerous islands form- ing the southern side of Singapoora Strait. The bottom, to within a few yards of shore, is soft mud and holds well.
" The town of Singapoora, on the island of the same name, stands on a point of land near the western part of a bay, and is easily dis- tinguished by there being just behind it a pleasant-looking hill that is partly cleared of trees, and between the point on which the town is situate and the western one of the bay there is a creek in which the native vessels anchor close to the town, so it may be found useful to European vessels of easy draft to refill in. On the eastern side of the bay, opposite to the town, there is a deep inlet lined by mangroves, which would also be a good anchorage for native boats; and about north from the low sandy point of the bay there is a village inhabited by fishermen, and a short way to the eastward there is a passage through the mangroves leading to a fresh - water river. . . .
" The coast to the eastward of the town bay is one continued sandy beach, and half-mile
to the eastward of the eastern point of the bay, or two and a half from the town, there is a point where the depth of water is six or seven fathoms at three or four hundred yards from the shore, and at eight hundred yards a small bank with about three fathoms at low water. The point offers a favoui-able position for batteries to defend ships that may in time of war anchor near to it.
"The tides during the napesare irregular at two or three miles off shore, but close in other- wise. The rise and fall will be about 10 and 12 feet, and it will be high water on full and change at eight and a half hours. The latitude of the town is about 1° 15J North, and variation of the needle observed on the low eastern point of the bay is 2" 9 East." '
Nothing hardly could have been more satisfactory than this opinion by a capable naval officer upon the maritime aspects of Singapore. With it in his possession Raffles had no difficulty in coming to a decision. His experienced eye took in the splendid possibilities which the island offered for the purposes in hand. A practically uninhabited island with a fine roadstead, it could, with a minimum of difficulty and expense, be made into a commercial centre, while its command- ing position in the narrowest part of the Straits of Malacca ga.ve it a political value beyond estimate. Impressed with these features of the situation, and swayed also, we may reason- ably assume, by the classical traditions of the spot. Raffles on January 29, 1819,=' ten days after quitting Pinang, hoisted the British flag on the island. The natural jubilation he felt at the accomplishment of his mission found vent in a letter to Marsden dated three days later. In this he wrote : " Here I am at Singapore, true to my word, and in the enjoy- ment of all the pleasure which a footing on such classic ground must inspire. The lines of the old city and of its defences are still to be traced, and within its ramparts the British Union waves unmolested." In the midst of his self-gratulation Raffles was not unmindful of the dangers which still hindered his plans from the jealousy of his rivals and the ignor- ance and indifference of the authorities at home. He made a special appeal to Marsden for support on behalf of his most recent attempt to extend British influence. "Most certainly," he wrote, " the Dutch never had a factory in the island of Singapore ; and it does not appear to me that their recent arrange- ments with a subordinate authority at Rhio can or ought to interfere with our permanent estab- lishment here. I have, however, a violent opposition to surmount on the part of the Pinang Government."
Raffles no doubt had in his mind when he penned this appeal the possible effects of Dutch strenuousness combined with Pinang hostility on the weak and vacillating mind (as it appeared markedly at this time) of the Indian Government and the India Board. His position, however, had been greatly strengthened by arrangements which, after landing on the island, he had found it possible to make with the Dato' Temenggong of Johore, " " Straits Settlements Records," \'o. 70, p. 432. = In Raffles's " Memoir," by his wife, the date of the hoisting of the flag is given as the 29th of Fetiruary, but this is an obvious blunder.
26
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
a high State official with great ill-defined powers, which placed him in a position almost of equality with the Sultan. This individual was resident on the island at the time of the visit of the mission, and he sought an interview with Raffles, in order to offer the British envoy his assistance in the execution of his designs. It fs probable that the offer was prompted more by hatred of the Dutch than love of the British. But Raffles was in no mood to examine too closely into the motives which dictated the Temenggong's action. Realising the value of his support, he con- cluded with him, on January 30th, a provisional understanding for the regularising of the occupation of the island. The Temenggong appears to have represented himself as the possessor of special rights, but Raffles deemed it expedient to secure the confirmation of the grant at the hands of the Sultan. It happened that at this time the ruling chief was Sultan Abdul Rahman, a man who was supported by the Dutch and was completely under their influence. Xo arrangement was possible with him, and Raffles must have known as much from the very first. But his fertile intellect speedily found a way out of the difficulty. The British envoy gathered from the Temenggong, and possibly was aware of the fact previously, that Abdul Rahman was the younger of two sons of the previous Sultan, and as his brother was living he was consequently a usurper. Without loss of time Raffles, through the Temenggong, sent to Riau for the elder brother, Tunku Husein, and on the latter's
arrival in Singapore duly proclaimed him Sultan of Johore. Afterwards a formal treaty, dated February 6, 1819, was drawn up in which the new Sultan joined with the Temenggong in granting the British the right to settle on the island. This treaty was strengthened by three further agreements, one dated June 26, 1 819, another. June, 1823, and the thfrd, November 19, 1824. But before the final treaty was concluded, and Raffles's dream of British domination at this point was realised, many a battle against prejudice and stupidity had to be fought.
In a despatch dated February 13, 1819, reporting to the Supreme Government the occupation of the island. Raffles gave a mas- terly summary of its features and advantages. " Our station at Singapore," he wrote, " may be considered as an effectual check to the rapid march of the Dutch in the Eastern Archi- pelago, and vi^hether we may have the power hereafter of extending our stations or be com- pelled to confine ourselves to this factory, the spell is broken, and pne independent port under our flag may be sufficient to prevent the recur- rence of the system of exclusive monopoly which the Dutch once exercised in these seas and would willingly re-establish. Situated at the extremity of th? peninsula, all vessels to and from China vifi Malacca are obliged to pass within five miles of our headquarters, and generally pass within half a mile of St. John's, a dependent islet forming the western point of the bay, in which I have directed a small post to be fixed, and from whence every ship can
be boarded if necessary, the water being smooth at all seasons. The run between these islands and the Carimons, which are in sight from it, can be effected in a few hours, and crosses the route which all vessels from the Netherlands must necessarily pursue when bound towards Batavia and the Eastern islands.
" As a port for the refreshment and refitment of our shipping, and particularly for that por- tion of it engaged in the China trade, it is only requisite for me to refer to the able survey and report of Captain Ross, and to add to it that excellent water in convenient situations for the supply of ships is to be found in several places, and that the industrious Chinese are already established in the interior and may soon be expected to supply vegetables, &c., &c., equal to the demand. The port is plentifully sup- plied with fish and turtle, which are said to be more abundant here than in any part of the archipelago. Rice, salt, and other necessaries are always procurable from Siam, the granary of the Malay tribes in this quarter. Timber abounds in the island and its vicinity ; a large part of the population are already engaged in building boats and vessels, and the Chinese, of whom some are already engaged in smelting the ore brought from the tin mines on the neighbouring islands, and others employed as cultivators and artificers, may soon be expected to increase in a number proportionate to the wants and interests of the settlement. . .
" A measure of the nature of that which we have adopted was in some degree necessary to evince to the varied and enterprising popula-
THE JOHORE RIVER. (From "Skizzen aiis Singapur und Djohor.")
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
27
tion of these islands that our commercial and political views in this quarter had not entirely sunk under the vaunted power and encroach- ment of the Dutch, and to prove to them that we were determined to make a stand against it. By maintaining our right to a free commerce with the Malay States and inspiring them with a confidence in the stability of it, we may con- template its advancement to a much greater extent than has hitherto been enjoyed. Inde- pendently of our commerce with the tribes of the archipelago, Singapore may be considered as the principal entrepot to which the native traders of Siam, Cambodia, Champa, Cochin China, and China will annually resort. It is to the Straits that their merchants are always bound in the first instance, and if on their arrival they can find a market for their goods and the means of supplying their wants, they will have no possible inducement to proceed to the more distant, unhealthy, and expensive port of Batavia. Siam, which is the granary of the countries north of the Equator, is rapidly ex- tending her native commerce, nearly the whole of which may be expected to centre at Singa- pore. The passage from China has been made in less than six days, and that number is all that is requisite in the favourable monsoon for the passage from Singapore to Batavia, Pinang, or Achin, while two days are sufficient for a voyage to Borneo." '
Singapore at the time of the British occupa- tion was a mere squalid fishing village, backed by a wi-ld, uninhabited country, the haunt of the tiger and other beasts of prey. But it was a place with a history. Six centuries before it had been the Constantinople of these Eastern seas, the seat of Malay learning and commerce, the focus of the commerce of two oceans and of part Of two continents. In the section of the work treating of the Federated Malay States a lengthy sketch is given of the rise of the Malay power, and it is only necessary here to deal very briefly with the subject. The most widely ac- cepted version of the foundation of Singapore is that contained in the " Sejara Malayu," or " Malay Annals," a famous work produced at Goa in the early seventeenth century from a Malay manu- script The story here set forth brings into prominence a line of Malay kings whose an- cestry is traced back by the record to Alexander the Great. The first of the line, Raja Bachi- tram Shah (afterwards known as Sang Sapurba), settled originally in Palembang, Sumatra, where he married a daughter of the local prince. He had a son, Sang Nila Utama, who was domi- ciled in Bentan, and who, like his father, formed a connection by marriage with the reigning dynasty. Finding Bentan too cir- cumscribed for his energies, Sang Nila, in 1160, crossed the channel to Singapore and laid the foundations of what subsequently became known as the Lion City. Concerning this name Sir Frank Swettenham, the historian of the Malays, writes i " Singa is Sanscrit for a lion and Pura for a city, and the fact that there are no lions in that neighbourhood now cannot disprove the statement that Sang Nila Utama saw in 1160, or thereabouts, an animal which he called by that name — an animal more par- ticularly described by the annalist as very ' swift and beautiful, its body bright red, its I " Straits Settlements Records," No. 182.
head jet black, its breast white, in size rather larger than a he-goat.' That was the lion of Singapura, and whatever else is doubtful the name is a fact-; it remains to this day, and there is no reason why the descendant of Alexander should not have seen something which suggested a creature unknown either to the Malay forest or the Malay language. It is even stated, on the same authority, that Singapura had an earlier name, Tamasak, which is explained by some to mean ' a place of festivals.' But that word, so interpreted, is not Malay, though it has been adopted and applied to other places which suggest festivals far less than this small tropical island may have done, even so early as the year 1160. It is obvious that the name Singapura was not given to the island hy Malays, but by colonists from India, and if there were an earlier name, Tamasak or Tamasha, that also would be of Indian origin. The fact proves that the name Singapura dates from a very early period, and strongly supports the theory that the Malays of our time are connected with a people who emigrated from Southern India to Sumatra and Java, and thence found their way to the Malay Peninsula." '
Under Sang Nila's rule Singapore grew and flourished, and when he died, in 1208, he left it a place of considerable importance. His successors strengthened its position until it attained to a degree of prestige and im- portance without parallel in the history of any port in these seas. Its prosperity appears to have been its ruin, for it attracted the jealous notice of a Javanese prince, the Raja of Maja- pahit, and that individual formed a design to conquer the city. He was beaten off on the first attempt, but a second expedition de- spatched in 1377 achieved its object through the treachery of a high official. The inhabi- tants were put to the sword by the conquerors, and those of them who managed to escape ultimately settled in Malacca, where they founded a new city. After this Singapore declined in power, until it finally flickered out in the racial feuds which preceded the early European conquests.
Raffles remained only a short time at Singa- pore after the occupation. His mission to Achin, which was associated with the suc- cession to the throne, brooked no delay. Moreover, he doubtless felt that, as far as the local situation was concerned, he was quite safe in leaving British interests in the capable hands of Major Farquhar. That Raffles appreciated to the fullest extent the value of the new settlement he had established is shown by his correspondence at this period. In a letter to the Duchess of Somerset from Pinang, whither he had returned to take up the threads of his new mission, he wrote under date Feb- ruary 22, 1819, describing the position of Singapore. "This," he said, "is the ancient maritime capital of the Malays, and within the walls of these fortifications, raised not less than six centuries ago, I have planted the British flag, where, I trust, it will long triumphantly wave." On June loth, when he had returned to Singapore after the completion of his work in Achin, he wrote to Colonel Addenbroke, the
^ " British Malava," "by Sir Frank Swettenham, p. 13.
equerry to Princess Charlotte, explaining in a communication of considerable length the poli- tical aspects of the occupation. " You will," he said, "probably have to consult the map in order to ascertain from what part of the world this letter is dated. I shall say nothing of the importance which I attach to the per- manence of the position I have taken up at Singapore ; it is a child of my own. But for my Malay studies I should hardly have known that such a place existed ; not only the Euro- pean but the Indian world was ignorant of it. I am sure you will wish me success ; and I will therefore only add that if my plans are con- firmed at home, it is my intention to make this my principal residence, and to devote the re- maining years of my stay in the East to the advancement of a colony which, in every way in which it can be viewed, bids fair to be one of the most important, and at the same time one of the least troublesome and expensive, which we possess. Our object is not territory, but trade ; a great commercial emporium and a fulcrum whence we may extend our influence politically as circumstances may hereafter re- quire. By taking immediate possession we put a negative to the Dutch claim of exclusion, and at the same time revive the drooping con- fidence of our allies and friends. One free port in these seas must eventually destroy the spell of Dutch monopoly, and what Malta is in the West, that may Singapore be in the East."-"
These and other letters we have quoted, interesting in themselves as reflections of the mind of Raffles at this eventful period, are of special value from the light they throw on the controversy which from time to time has arisen as to Raffles's title to be regarded as the founder of Singapore. From beginning to end there is no sort of suggestion that the scheme, as finally carried out, was not Raffles's own. On the contrary, there is direct evidence that he acted independently, first in the statement of Lady Raffles that the plan was in his mind before he left England, and, second, in his letter to Marsden from off the Sandheads, in which he specifically indicates Singapore as the possible goal of his mission.
Sir Frank Swettenham very fairly states the case in favour of Raffles in the chapter in his work= in which he deals with the early history of Singapore. " It is more than probable," he says, " that Raffles, by good luck and without assistance from others, selected Singapore as the site of his avowedly anti-Dutch pro-British station. The idea of such a port was Raffles's own ; for it is probable that his instructions were drafted on information supplied by him- self, and in that case it is noticeable that Rhio and Johore are indicated as likely places and not Singapore ; he went south with the express object of carrying out his favourite scheme before his masters would have time to change their minds, or his rivals to anticipate his de- sign. Colonel Farquhar wasonlj' there to help his senior, and it is certain that if there had been no Raffles in 1819 there would have been no British Singapore to-day."
The actual occupation of Singapore was only the beginning of Raffles's work. Obvious as
I " Memoir of Sir T. S. Raffles," p. 3S0. = " British Malaya," p. 70.
28
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
the advantages of the situation were to those who knew the Straits, and palpable as was the necessity of strengthening British influence in these seas if it was not entirely to be wiped out, there continued a resolute opposition to the scheme on the part of the Pinang autho- rities. The hostility of these narrow-minded bureaucrats went to lengths which seem per- fectly incredible in these days. Immediately on receipt of the news of the occupation, on f'ebruary 14, .1819, Bannerman sat down and indited a minute which, with perfect frankness, revealed the jealous sentiments which animated the writer. He wrote: "The time is now come for throwing aside all false delicacy in the consideration of Sir Stamford Raffles's views and measures. I have long believed that there was a good deal of personal ambition and desire of distinction in his proceeding to the eastward and forming a settlement — at any rate, to add to his old, worn-out establishment at Bencoolen (so styled by himself in a letter to the Court of Directors dated 12th of April last). He has now obtained an island, which he is most anxious to aggrandise as soon as possible at the expense of his neighbours, and with as large a regular force as that stationed at Fort Marlborough. I have no doubt he has already determined to come and make Singapore the seat of his government, and Bencoolen its dependency.
" I shall now only add that before the ex- piration of many months I feel convinced the merchants at Calcutta will learn that this new settlement may intercept the trade of this port, but can never restore the commerce they formerly enjoyed with the Eastern Archipelago, as the occupation by the Dutch of Java, Banca, the Moluccas, Rhio, the greater part of the Celebes, and of Borneo must enable that Power to engross the principal share." ' The petty spite of this diatribe is only exceeded by the colossal self-complacency and shortsighted- ness which it displays. And its tone was thoroughly in keeping with the dealings of the Pinang Government with the infant settlement. After Raffles had left Singapore to prosecute his mission to Achin, information was brought to the new settlement by Captain Ross, the officer who made the preliminary survey of Singapore, that the Dutch Governor of Malacca had strongly recommended the Government of Java to send up a force to seize the British de- tachment at Singapore. As in duty bound, Farquhar communicated the news to Colonel Bannerman, with a request for reinforcements to enable him to maintain his post in the event of attack. Colonel Bannerman's reply was a violently worded despatch refusing the aid asked.
" It must be notorious," he wrote in a minute he penned on the subject, " that any force we are able to detach to Singapoor could not resist the overpowering armament at the disposal of the Batavia Government, although its presence would certainly compel Major Farquhar to resist the Netherlanders, even to the shedding of blood, and its ultimate and forced submission would tarnish the national honour infinitely more seriously than the degradation which would ensue from the retreat of the small party now at Singapoor.
' " Straits Settlements Records," No. 1S2A.
"Neither Major Farquhar's honour as a soldier nor the honour of the British Govern- ment now require him to attempt the defence of Singapoor by force of arms against the Netherlanders, as he knows Sir Stamford Raffles has occupied that island in violation of the orders of the Supreme Government, and as he knows that any opposition from his present small party would be an useless and reprehensible sacrifice of men, when made against the overwhelming naval and military force that the Dutch will employ. Under these circumstances I am certain that Major Farquhar must be certain that he would not be justified in shedding blood in the maintenance of his port at present."
Colonel Bannerman went on to state that he therefore proposed to send by the despatch prahu to Major Farquhar a letter in this tenor, together with other papers, and at the same time to forward a temperate and firm remonstrance to the Dutch Governor of Malacca, by means of which he hoped any violent projected measures would be deprecated without affect- ing in the slightest degree the national honour and credit. He also proposed that, as no other opportunity would probably occur for several weeks, a transport should be sent to Singapore with a further supply of six thousand dollars. " This last I am, however, surprised to learn that he should require so soon, for his small detachment has not been forty days at Singapore before it appears to have expended so large a sum as 15,000 dollars which was taken with it."
The minute proceeded : " In proposing to send this transport to Major Farquhar I have another object in view. I have just had reason to believe that the Gauges and Ncarchiis (the only two vessels now at Singapore) are quite incapable of receiving on board the whole of the detachment there in the event of Major Farquhar's judgment deciding that a retreat from the port would be most advisable. If, therefore, one of the transports is victualled equal to one month's consumption for 250 men and sent to Singapore with authority given to Major Farquhar to employ her should her services be requisite, that officer will then have ample means for removing, whenever indis- pensably necessary, not only all his party, but such of the native inhabitants as may fear the Dutch vengeance, and whom it would be most cruel to desert."
The minute went on to say that the transport would be a means of withdrawing the Singa- pore garrison in a British ship and saving the national character from a very great portion of the disgrace and mortification of having Major Farquhar embarked by the Dutch on their own ships.
Colonel Bannerman concluded as follows : " However invidious the task, I cannot close this minute without pointing out to the notice of our superiors the very extraordinary conduct of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen. He posts a detachment at Singapoor under very equivocal circumstances, without even the means of coming away, and with such de- fective instructions and slender resources that, before it has been there a month, its com- mander is obliged to apply for money to this Government, whose dutv it becomes to offer
that officer advice and means against an event which Sir Stamford Raffles ought to have ex- pected, and for which he ought to have made an express provision in his instructions to that officer.
" My letters of the isth and 17th February will prove that upon his return from Singapore I offered him any supplies he might require for the detachment he had left there, and also earnestly called upon him to transmit instruc- tions to Major Farquhar for the guidance of his conduct in the possible event of the Nether- landers attempting to dislodge him by force of arms. Did he avail himself of my offer ? No, he set off for Achin and left Major Farquhar to shift for himself. In fact, he acted (as a friend of mine emphatically observed) like a man who sets a house on fire and then runs away." This extraordinary effusion reveals the animus and stupidity with which Raffles was pursued in the prosecution of his great design. But it does not stand alone. While Bannerman was doing his best to destroy RafHes's work by withholding much-needed support from the tiny force planted at Singapore, he was inditing highly-coloured despatches to the authorities in Calcutta and at home on the mischievousneSs of the policy that had been embarked upon. In one of these communications despatched to the Court of Directors on March 4, 1819, shortly after the news of the occupation had been received at Pinang, the irate official wrote : " My honourable employers will observe that the Governor-General in Council was pleased to grant the Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen a special commission to visit this presidency to execute important duties belonging to this Government, and already recommended by me under the most favourable auspices, and to make me the instrument of assisting that gentleman to aggrandise his own name and settlement at the expense of the character, dignity, and local influence of this Govern- ment." To Calcutta Bannerman addressed despatches condemning in unsparing terms the action that had been taken, and confidently looking for support in the line of policy he had pursued in opposition to Raffles. There was at the outset a disposition on the part of the Supreme Government to think that in despatch- ing Raffles on his mission they had been precipitate. Influenced by the news of Dutch aggressiveness, and impressed also probably by Bannerman's gloomy vaticinations upon the situation, they addressed a letter to Pinang expressing the view that it might be desirable to relinquish the mission. But their hesitation was only temporary. With the receipt of Raffles's own communications there was borne in upon them the importance of upholding his action. Then the storm broke upon Colonel Bannerman for the part he had played in obstructing the mission. In a despatch dated April 8, 1819, the Governor-General poured upon the unfortunate Governor a volume of censure such as has rarely been meted out to a high official. " With regard to the station established at Singapore," said the Governor- General, " though we are not prepared to express any final opinion upon the determina- tion adopted by Sir Stamford Raffles to occupy that harbour, we cannot think it was within the province of your Government to pronounce
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
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a decisive opinion upon a violation of his in- structions. Commissioned and entrusted by this Government, to this Government alone he was answerable. The instructions under which he acted, and which were communicated to your Government that you might the more readily promote the object, were adapted to the port of Rhio chiefly, and the probability that the Dutch might anticipate us there rendered it necessary to prescribe a line which was in that contingency to be followed with the utmost exactness. The same principle was in the subsequent instructions extended to Johore. In both cases the injunctions referred to the possible event of an apparent right having been actually advanced by the Dutch. But though the spirit of inculcation to avoid collision with the Dutch applied itself to any other position, it necessarily did so with a latitude suited to circumstances.
" We think your Government entirely wrong in determining so broadly against the propriety of the step taken by Sir Stamford Raffles on a simple reclamation from the Governor of Malacca, which, whether well or ill, founded, was to be looked for as certain. . . .
" Under these circumstances it does not appear to us that any doubts which may be excited at the present stage of the business could be a legitimate principle for your guidance, so as to exonerate you from the obligation of fulfilling our directions for your supporting Sir Stamford Raffles with a moderate force should he establish a station on the Eastern sea. So far do we regard you from being freed fronl the call to act upon our instruc- tions, that we fear you would have difficulty in excusing yourselves should the Dutch be tempted to violence by the weakness of the detachment at Singapore and succeed in dis- lodging it. Fortunately there does not appear the likelihood of such an extremity. Repre- sentations will be made to this Government, and investigations must be set on foot ; in the interval which these will occupy, we have to request from your Government every aid to the factory at Singapore. The jealousy of it which we lament to have been avowed and recorded would find no tolerance with the British Government should misfortune occur and be traceable to neglects originating in such a feeling. Whether the measure of occupying it should ultimately be judged to have been indiscreetly risked or otherwise, the procedure must be upheld, unless we shall be satisfied (which is not now the case) that perseverance in maintaining the port would be an infraction of equity."
In a private letter, of somewhat earlier date, the Governor-General explained at some length the principles which had guided him in entrust- ing the mission to Raffles. He wrote : " It is impossible to form rational directions for the guidance of any mission without allowing a degree of discretion to be exercised in con- tingencies which, though foreseen, cannot be exactly measured, but the particular principle by which Sir Stamford Raffles was to be ruled was so broadly and positively marked as to admit no excuse for proceedings inconsistent with its tenor. For that reason I have to infer the unlikelihood of his hazarding anything contrary to our wishes. .
" We never meant to show such obsequious- ness to the Dutch as to forbear securing those interests of ours which tljey had insidiously and basely assailed out of deference to the title which they were disposed to advance of supremacy over every island and coast of the Eastern Archipelago. It was to defeat that profligate speculation that we commissioned Sir Stamford Raffles to aim at obtaining some station which would prevent the entire com- mand of the Straits of Malacca from falling into the hands of the Dutch, there being many unpossessed by them and not standing within any hitherto asserted pretensions."
Bannerman replied to this letter in a " hurried note," in which he said that he bowed with deference to his lordship's views. " I have," he went on, "received a lesson which shall teach me how I again presume to offer opinions as long as I live." He trusted his lordship would perceive from their despatch in reply " that our respect and attachment have in no degree abated, and that though we have not the elation of success we still do not possess the suUenness of discomfiture." The despatch referred to (dated May i8, 1819), entered at lenglh into the controversy, extenuating the course that the Pinang authorities had taken, and asking that if Singapore was retained it should be placed under the Pinang Govern- ment. The despatch concluded :
" I am sorry, my lord, to have trespassed so long on your time, but 1 have a whole life of character to defend, and in this vindication I hope I have not borne harder than what is necessary upon Sir S. Raffles and others. I have taken particular care to have here no personal controversy or cause of personal dis- pute with that gentleman. On the contrary he and his amiable lady have received from me since their first arrival from Calcutta every personal civility and attention which your Excellency had desired me to show them in your lordship's private communication of the 29th of November, and which my public situa- tion here rendered it incumbent on me to offer. Illiberal or malicious revenge, I thank God, my heart knows not, and has never known. The revenge which may be apparent in this address is only such as justice imperiously required and morality sanctioned. Its only objects were to procure reparation for the injury I have sustained, and to promote the just ends of punishment." »
Just prior to the receipt of the final crushing despatch from the Governor-General, Colonel Bannerman had forwarded to the Court of Directors at home a long communication, in which he marshalled, not without skill, the familiar arguments against the occupation of Singapore. He concluded with this passage : " It will now remain for the Honourable Court to decide whether the occupation of Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles is an equivalent for the certain ill-will it has excited against us from the Dutch authorities in India, for the enormous expense it has saddled on the India Company, and for the probable disaster it has entailed on all the negotiations contemplated between the two Courts in Europe." This communication was written on the 24th of June. A week later another letter was forwarded. It was couched "Straits Settlements Records," No. 182A.
in terms indicative of the heaviness of the blow which had fallen upon the old soldier- administrator. Bannerman wrote : " We now beg leave to submit to your Honourable Court the letter which we have received from the Most Noble the Governor-General in Council in reply to all our despatches and references on the subject of the Achin mission and Sir Stamford Raffles's Eastern mission, and we feel the most poignant sorrow in acquainting your Honourable Court that this despatch conveys to us sentiments of reproof and animadversion from that exalted authority instead of approval and commendation, which we confess to have expected with the fullest confidence.
" We had as full a knowledge of the in- structions of the Supreme Government on these matters as Sir S. Raffles himself had, unless (which our duty will not allow us to believe) Sir S. Raffles had actually, as he always stated to our President, other verbal orders from the Governor-General which appeared diametri- cally opposite to the spirit and letter of his written instructions, and we had certainly as lively and a more immediate interest from proximity to uphold the welfare and advantage of the public interest in this quarter."
The despatch proceeded to state that the Governor and his Council offered " such ah explanation as a sense of duty and a regard for our personal honour and reputation point out to us " ; and then added that if their remarks had the effect of averting from that Govern- ment the accusation of its being actuated by jealousy or other motives of an invidious nature they would be fully satisfied. Then followed this parting shot at the occupation :
" Relative to the new establishment of Singa- pore, your Honourable Court will now be enabled to judge whether the violent measure of occupying such in defiance of the Dutch claims will eventually prove more beneficial to your or the national interests in the Eastern Archipelago than would have been effected by the adoption of the mild, conciliating, and, we may say, economical policy recommended so strenuously by this Government in pursuance of the original views of the Governor-General. The commercial advantages of Singapore, whilst the Dutch hold the places of growth and manufacture of the great staples of the Eastern Archipelago, appear to us more than proble- matical. Your Honourable Court may recollect that the first occupation of this island gave rise to similar extravagant prognostications of great commercial benefits, so little of which have ever been realised, although it has cost the India Company a debt of nearly four million sterling in enlarging and improving its capacity. . . . On the other hand, the political advantages of Singapore in time of war appear to us still less, and by no means necessary whilst in possession of such immense resources in India, which we can always bring in less than a month after the declaration of war against any settlements that the Dutch may form in these Straits."
Colonel Bannerman was not content to rely on the despatches for his justification. Accom- panying them he sent letters to the Chairman and Deputy-Chairman of the Court, in which he said that he hoped and trusted that all his proceedings in respect to Singapore "will bear
30
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
mc out in the declaration which I now solemnly and on my honour and conscience utter, that the interests and only the interests of my honourable employers have influenced and directed the whole of my conduct, and that I had on the occasion no other personal interest excepting a very strong one not to do what I considered my duty from the view of the very event which has now happened — the possibility of my opposition to Sir Stamford Raffles being imputed to so base and ignoble a motive as petty jealousy." The Court of Directors proved scarcely more sympathetic than the Supreme Government had shown themselves. They re- plied in a despatch in which, while conceding that Bannerman had been actuated by a sense of duty, they expressed regret that he had been betrayed by the warmth of discussion into an imputation upon Sir Stamford Raffles's motives " totally irreconcilable with every principle of public duty." The unfortunate Governor was saved this final stinging rebuke. Before the despatch reached Pinang — before, indeed, it was written — he had gone to his last account. Worn out with worry and depressed by the mortification of defeat, he died on August i, 1819. He was in some respects an excellent administrator, but he lacked conspicuously the qualities of foresight and force of character necessary in such a situation as that in which he found himself in the closing days of his career. His treatment of Sir Stamford Raffles and his general handling of the crisis precipitated by the aggressive polic>' of the Dutch will always remain a monumental example of official in- capacity.
While the authorities at home were not disposed to back up Colonel Bannerman, they were little inclined to support Sir Stamford Raffles. When news of the occupation reached London, the Secret Committee of the East India Company, who had previously written to Lord Hastings disapproving of the mission, wrote a violently worded despatch in which they declared that " any difficulty with the Dutch will be created by Sir Stamford Raffles's intemperance of conduct and language." They graciously intimated, however, that they would await the further explanations of Lord Hastings " before retaining or relinquishing Sir Stamford Raffles's acquisition at Singapore."
Downing Street joined with Leadenhall Street in angry pronouncements upon what both regarded as an ill-advised and ill-timed display of excessive zeal on the part of a reckless subordinate. A premonition of the storm must have been borne in upon Raffles, for at the very earliest stage of the occupation he took measures to explain the importance of Singapore to influential personages at home who would be able to raise their voices with effect in the event of any retrograde policy being favoured. To Marsden he wrote at regular intervals with the express object, we may assume, of enlisting his powerful support. On January 31, 1819, the day of the signature of the treaty with the Dalo' Tcmenggong, Raffles addressed the following to his friend :
"This place possesses an excellent harbour and everything that can be desired for a British port, and the island of St. John's, which forms the SW. point of the harbour. W'c have com- manded an intercourse with all the ships
passing through the Straits of Singapore. We are within a week's sail of China, close to Siam and in the very seat of the Malayan Empire. This, therefore, will probably be my last attempt. If I am deserted now I must fain return to Bencoolen and become philo- sopher."
Writing later, on February 19th, Raffles says :
" In short, Singapore is everything we could desire, and I ma\' consider myself most for- tunate in the selection ; it will soon rise into importance, and with this single station alone I would undertake to counteract all the plans of Mynheer ; it breaks the spell, and they are no longer the exclusive sovereigns of Eastern seas."
Again, under date June 15, 1819, Raffles writes :
" I am happy to inform you that everything is going on well here ; it bids fair to be the next port to Calcutta ; all we want now is the certainty of permanent possession, and this, of course, depends on authorities beyond our control. You may take my word for it this is by far the most important station in the East, and as far as naval superiority and commercial interests are concerned, of much higher value than whole continents of territory."
Raffles's unwavering confidence in the future of Singapore, expressed so trenchantly in these letters, convinced his friends at home of the value of the acquisition he had made ; but his enemies and rivals were persistent, and for a long time the fate of the settlement hung in the balance. Echoes of the discussions from time to time reached Raffles in the Straits, and he was naturally affected by them. More in sorrow than in anger we find him writing on July 17, 1820 : " I learn with much regret the prejudice and the malignity by which I am attacked at home for the desperate struggle I have maintained against the Dutch. Instead of being supported by my own Government, I find them deserting me and giving way in every instance to the unscrupulous and enor- mous assertions of the Dutch. All, however, is safe so far, and if matters are only allowed to remain as they are, all will go well. The great blow has been struck, and, though I may personally suffer in the scuffle, the nation must be benefited. Were the value of Singapore properly appreciated, I am confident that all England would be in its favour. It positively takes nothing from the Dutch, and is to us everything ; it gives us the command of China and Japan, vui Siam and Cambodia, Cochin China, &c., to say nothing of the islands them- selves. . . Let the commercial interests for the present drop every idea of a direct trade to China, and let them concentrate their influence in supporting Singapore, and they will do ten times better. As a free port it is as much to them as the possession of Macao ; and it is here their voyages should finish. . . . Singapore may as a free port thus become tlie connecting link and grand ciihifol between Europe, Asia, and China ; it is, in fact, fast becoming so,"
Again, writing on July 22, 1820, Raffles further alludes to the talk of abandonment. "It appears to me impossible that Singapore should be given up, and yet the indecisive manner in which the Ministers express themselves, .and
the unjust and harsh terms they use towards me, render it doubtful what course they will adopt."
Happily his confidence in the convincing strength of the arguments for retention was justified. The Marquess of Hastings, after his first lapse into timidity, firmly asserted the British claim to maintain the occupation. In replying to a despatch from Baron 'Vander Capellan, Governor-General of Netherlands India, protesting against the British action, his lordship maintained that the chiefs who ceded Singapore were perfectly independent chiefs, fully competent to make arrangements with respect to Singapore. He intimated, however, that if it should prove on fuller information that the Netherlands Government possessed a right to the exclusive occupation of Singapore, the Government would, " without hesitation, obey the dictates of justice by with- drawing all our establishments from the place." Some time later, in July, 1819, the Marquess of Hastings addressed another despatch, in which he outlined at some length the views of the Supreme Government of India in reference to the Dutch claims. He affirmed that a manifest necessity existed for counteracting the Dutch exertions to secure absolute supremacy in the Eastern seas ; that the views of the British Government had always been confined to the security of British commerce ancl the freedom of other nations ; that it was held that the Dutch had no just claim founded on engage- ments which might have been made with the native princes before the transfer of Malacca in 1795 ; that their only right depended on the treaty concluded at Riau on November 26, 1818, but which was subsequent to the one entered into by Major Farquhar on the part of the British Government with the Govern- ment of Riau as an independent State in the August preceding ; that under this view the Dutch had adopted the most injurious and extraordinary proceeding of making a treaty declaring that of the British to be null and void ; and that the Dutch authorities who transferred Malacca in 1795 had declared that Riau, Johore, Pahang and Lingen, through the first of which the Dutch claimed Singapore, were not dependencies of Malacca. In a further despatch, dated August 21, 1819, Hastings closed the controversy, as far as his Government was concerned, by reaffirming the untenability of the Dutch claims and declaring that the sole object Of the British Government was to protect its own interests against what had appeared an alarming in- dication of pretensions to supremacy and monopoly on the part of the Netherlandish authorities in seas hitherto free to all parties. The dispute continued to rage in Europe for some time after this, the Dutch pressing their claims with characteristic tenacity upon the attention of the British Government. Indeed, it was not until 1824, when a general settle- ment was arrived at between the two Govern- ments, that the final word was said on the subject of Singapore. The advocacy of power- ful friends whose aid Raffles was able to invoke unquestionably had considerable in- fluence in securing the ultimate verdict in favour of retention. But the concession was grudgingly made, and Raffles was left to reap
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF liRITISH MAI.AYA
31
the reward of his prescient statesmanship in the linowledge that he had won for his country this great strategical centre in the Eastern sea. It is a chapter in British colonial history which redounds little to the credit of either the British official world or the British people. Their sole excuse is that they were ignorant and acted ignorantly. The age was one in which scant thought was given to question-, of world policy, which now are of recognised importance. Moreover, long years of war, in which the country had been reduced to the point of exhaustion, had left people little in the mood to accept new responsibilities which carried with lliem (he possibility of inter- national strife. Still, when every allowance is made for the circumstances of the time, it must be conceded that the treatment of Raffles at this period, and the subsequent neglect of his memory, have left an indelible stain upon the reputation of his countrymen for generosity.
CHAPTER II.
The Buildin'g of the City.
Viewing the Singapore of to-day, with its streets thronged with a cosmopolitan crowd drawn from every quarter of the globe, its bustling wharves instinct with a vigorous com- mercial life, and its noble harbour, in which float every kind of craft, from the leviathan liner of 10,000 tons to the tiny Malay fishing boat, it is difficult to realise that less than a century ago the place was nothing more than a small Malay settlement, in which a mere handful of natives eked out a precarious exis- tence by fishing, with an occasional piratical raid on the adjoining coasts. Yet if there is one fact more conclusive than another in the history of this great port, it is that it is a pure product of British foresight, energy, and com- mercial aptitude. Discovering an incomparable position, the Empire builders, represented by Raffles and his lieutenants and successors, dug deep and wide the foundations of the city, and the genius and enterprise of British merchants did the rest. Sometimes it has happened that a great colonial city has attained to eminence through accidental causes, as, for example, in the cases of Kimberley and Johannesburg. But Singapore owes nothing of its greatness to adventitious aids. As we have seen in the extracts cited from Raflles's letters, its ultimate position of importance in the Empire was accurately forecasted ; before one stone had been laid upon another the founders knew that they were designing what would be no "mean city" — a commercial entrepot which would vie with the greatest in the East.
From the practical point of view there were many advantages in the situation which RafHes found when he occupied Singapore. Rights of property there were none outside the interests of the overlord, which were readily satisfied by the monetary allowance provided for under the treaties with the Sultan and the Temenggong. There was no large resident population to cause trouble and friction, and
there were no local laws to conllict with British juridical principles. In fine. Rallies and his associates had a clL'an slate on which to draw at their fancy the lines of the settle- ment. They drew with perspicacity and a courageous faith in the future. We catch occasional glimpses of the life of the infant settlement as reflected in the oflicial literature of the period or in the meagre columns of the Pinang newspaper. In the very earliest days of the occupation an incoming ship from China reports, we may imagine with a sharp note of interrogation, the presence of four ships in the roadstead at Singapore and of tents on the shore. The Stores Department is indented on for building materials, food supplies, and for munitions of war, including a battery of i8-pounder guns, with a hundred rounds of ammunition per gun. Invalids from the island arrive, and are drafted to the local hospital for treatment. Then comes crowning evidence that the settlement is really growing and thriving in this interesting domestic announce- ment in the C(5lumns of the Prince of Wales Island Gazette of August 7, 1819. " Sincapore birth. — On the 25th of July, Mrs. Barnard of a daughter. This is the first birth at the new settlement."
The first official step in the creation of the new Singapore was the issue on February 6, 1819, by Sir Stamford Raffles, of a proclamation announcing the, conclusion of the treaty which made the place a British settlement. Simulta- neously Rallies addressed to Colonel Farquhar (as he had now become) a letter instructing him as to the course he was to pursue in all matters aflecting the settlement. By this time the general lines of the new town had been provisionally settled. The site of the settlement was fixed on the identical spot which Raffles beHeved, from the perusal of Malayan history, was occupied by the old city. Beyond the erection of a few temporary buildings and the tracing of one or two necessary roads, little seems to have been done during the first few months of the occupation, probably because of the uncertainty in which the future of the place was enshrouded in consequence of the political complications. But on Raffles's return to Singapore on the completion of his mission to Achin, he devoted himself in earnest to the task of devising arrangements for the administration of the important port which his instinct told him would spring up phoenix-like out of the ashes of the dead and half-forgotten Malay city. The plan which he finally evolved is sketched in an elaborate letter of instructions, dated June 26, 1819, which he addressed to Farquhar just prior to his second departure from the island. The European town, he directed, should be erected without loss of time. This, he estimated, should extend along the beach for a distance of 200 yards from the lines as far eastward as practicable, and should include as mucli of the ground that had already been cleared of the Bugis as was required, the occupants being reimbursed for the expense they had been put to in making the clearances, and given other ground in lieu of the sites first chosen. He directed that for the time being the space lying between the new road and the beach should be reserved for Government,
while the aiea on the opposite side of the road should be immediately marked out into twelve separate allotments, with an equal frontage, to be appropriated to the first ropcclable Euro- pean applicants. In practice it was found impossible to adhere to this plan. The mer- chants were indisposed to build along the north beach on the space allotted to them, owing to the inconvenience to shipping resulting from the low level of the beach. Farquhar, to relieve the situation, granted them permission to appropriate the Govern- ment reserved land on the left bank of the river, on the understanding that they must be prepared to mo\e if required to do so. In October, 1822, when Raflles returned to take over the Government of the island, he found that a number of houses had already been built on the reserved ground. He appointed a committee consisting of three disinterested persons — Dr. Wallich of Calcutta, Dr. Lumsdain and Captain Salmond of Bencoolen— to assist him in fixing a new ^ite for the town. After much consideration it was decided to level a small hill on the south side, on the site of what is now Commercial Square, and with the earth from this hill to raisp the land on the south bank of the river and so create new building sites. This scheme was ultimately carried out, and in association with it were executed arrangements for the expropriation on fair terms of all who had built with the Resident's permission on the north bank. A few of the buildings on this side were allowed to remain and were subsequently used for public offices.
While the levelling operations for the new settlement were proceeding the workmen un- earthed near the mouth of the river a flat stone bearing an inscription in strange characters. Of the finding of this relic and its subsequent fate we have a vivid contemporary description in a Malay work written by .■Vbdullah, Raflles's old assistant. Abdullah wrote : " At the time there was found, at the end of the Point, buried in jungle, a smooth square-sided stone, about 6 feet long, covered with chiselled characters. No one could read the characters, for they had been exposed to the action of the sea-water for God knows how many thousands of ye.trs. When the stone was discovered people of every race went in crowds to see it. The Hindus said the writing was Hindu, but they could not read it. The Chinese said it was Chinese. I went with Sir Stamford Raflles and the Rev. M. Thompson and others, and to me it seemed that the letters resembled Arabic letters, but I could not decipher them owing to the ages during which the stone had been subject to the rise and fall of the tides.
" Numbers of clever people came to read the inscription ; some brought soft dough and took an impi-ession, while others brought black ink and smeared it over the stone in order to make the writing plain. Every one exhausted his ingenuity in attempts to ascertain the nature of the characters and the language, but all without success. So the stone remained where it lay, with the tide washing it every day. Then Sir Stamford Raffles decided that the writing was in the Hindu character, because the Hindus were the first people to come to these parts, to Java, Bali, and Siam, whose people are all descended from Hindus.
32
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
But not a man in Singapore could say what was the meaning of the words cut on that stone ; therefore only God knows. And the stone remained there till Mr. Bonham became Governor of Singapore, Pinang, and Malacca (1837-43). At that time Mr. Coleman was the Government engineer at Singapore, and he, sad to tell, broke the stone. In my opinion it was a very improper thing to do, but per- haps it was due to his stupidity and ignorance and because he could not understand the writing that he destroyed the stone. It never occurred to him that there might be others more clever than himself who could unravel the secret ; for I have heard that there are those in England who are able to read such a riddle as this with ease, whatever the lan- guage, whoever the people who wrote it. As the Malays say, ' What you can't mend, don't destroy.' "
It is difficult to find a more adequate char- acterisation of this piece of silly vandalism on the part of Mr. Coleman than that contained in Abdullah's scathing criticism. The motives which prompted the act are difficult to con- ceive, but whatever they were the secret of the stone was effectually concealed by the destructive operations. Some fragments col- lected subsequently found their way to Calcutta, to supply the savants there with a knotty problem to puzzle over, and from time to time discussion has arisen in Singapore itself over the historic debris. We are still, how- ever, as far as ever from discovering the key to the mystery. Perhaps the most plausible explanation is that of Lieutenant Begbie, who writing in 1834, suggested that the stone was identical with a tablet or tablets mentioned in the " Malay Annals " and relating to a conflict between a Singapuri Samson named Badang and a rival from the Coromandel coast. Badang won great fame as the victor in the fight, and when he died he was buried at the mouth of the Singapore river, and the Coro- mandel King sent two stones to place over his grave. The stone unearthed at the build- ing of the town, it was argued by Lieutenant Begbie, must have been one of these. The controversy may be left at this point. It is really now only of interest to illustrate the paucity of the antiquarian remains of which Singapore can boast.
Farquhar's share in the building of the new settlement was a considerable one. He cleared the jungle and drove roads in all directions, always with a keen eye to future possibilities. Perhaps his finest conception was the esplanade, which is still one of the most attractive features of the city. While the work of laying out the new port was proceeding, merchants, both European and native, attracted by the news of the occupation and the promise it brought of future prosperity, were flocking to the spot, eager to have a share in the trade which they rightly calculated was bound to grow up under the protecting shadow of the British flag. Farquhar may be left to tell the story of this early " rush." In a letter to Raffles, dated March 21, 1820, he wrote : " Nothing can possibly exceed the rising trade and general prosperity of this infant colony ; indeed, to look at our harbour just now, where upwards of twenty junks, three of which are from China
and two from Cochin China, the rest from Siam, and other vessels are at anchor, besides ships, brigs, prows, &c., &c., a person would naturally exclaim. Surely this cannot be an establishment of only twenty months' stand- ing ! One of the principal Chinese merchants has told me in the course of conversation that he would be very glad to give 500,000 dollars for the revenue of Singapore five years hence ; merchants of all descriptions are collecting here so fast that nothing is heard in the shape of complaint but the want of more ground to build on. The swampy ground on the opposite side of the river is now almost covered with Chinese houses, and the Bugis village is become an extensive town. Settle- ments are forming up the different rivers, and from the public roads which have been made the communication to various parts of the country is now quite open and con- venient."
In July of the same year Raffles himself, in a letter to a friend in England, describes in glow- ing terms the progress of the work of develop- ment. "My settlement," he wrote, " continues to thrive most wonderfully ; it is all and every- thing I could wish, and if no untimely fate awaits it, it promises to become the emporium and pride of the East." Happily no untimely fate did overtake it. Despite the jealousy and obstructiveness of Pinang, notwithstanding the indifference and neglect of the home authorities and apprehensions born of " a craven fear of greatness," the progress of the port was continuous. Two years and a half after the occupation we find Raffles estimating that the exports and imports of Singapore by native boats alone exceeded four millions of dollars in the year, and that during the whole period of the brief life of the settlement no fewer than 2,889 vessels had entered and cleared from the port, of which 383 were owned and commanded by Europeans. In 1822 the tonnage had risen to 130,689 tons, and the total value of the trade to upwards of eight millions of dollars. Two years later the annual trade had increased in value to upwards of thirteen millions of dollars. It would be difficult to discover in the whole history of British colonisation, fruitful as it is in instances of successful development, a more remarkable example of rapid growth.
No small share of the brilliant success achieved in the founding of Singapore was unquestion- ably due to the liberal policy Raffles introduced from the outset. He foresaw that to attempt to build up the prosperity of the place on the exclusive principles of the Dutch, or even on the modified system of restrictive trade obtain- ing at our own ports, would be to foredoom the settlement to failure. The commerce of the port, to obtain any degree of vigour, he under- stood, must be absolutely unfettered. Again and again he insists upon this point in his correspondence, pleading and fighting for the principle with all the earnestness of ■ his strenuous nature. Free the trade was from the beginning, and though later attempts were made to tamper with the system, Singapore has continued to this day in the enjoyment of the liberal and enlightened constitution with which Raffles endowed it.
Many stupid things were done by the
authorities in connection with the early his- tory of Singapore, but it will always remain to their credit that they entrusted to Raffles the task of establishing the administrative machinery there on a permanent footing. Ordered from Bencoolen to Singapore in September, 1822, Raffles, with a light heart and heightened expectations, embarked upon what was to him a labour of love. His wide experience in Java and at Bencoolen, aided by his natural ability, enabled him without diffi- culty to devise a sound working constitution for the new colony. Recognising that the prosperity of the settlement depended upon adequate facilities for shipping, he caused the harbour and the adjacent coasts to be carefully surveyed from Diamond Point to the Karimun Islands. The sale of land was carefully regu- lated, with due regard, on the one hand, to Government interests, and on the other to the development of trade. For the better safe- guarding of rights he caused a land registry to be established — a step which proved of immense value in the later history of the colony. A code of regulations designed to suit the needs of a mixed community of the class of that already settled in the town was drawn up, and Raffles himself sat in court to enforce them. He also established a local magistracy as a means of strengthening the administration of the law and creating a sense of responsibility in the communitj'. As in Bencoolen he had interested himself in the moral well-being of those entrusted to his charge, so here he gave serious consideration to the problem of training the youths of the settlement to be good citizens. The outcome of his deliberations was the framing of a scheme for the founding of an institution for the study of Chinese and Malay literature. Early in 1822 the project assumed a practical shape in the establishment of the famous Singapore Institute. It was Raffles's desire to give further strength to the cause of edu- cational progress in the colony by the transfer to Singapore of the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca. But his proposals under this head were thwarted by the action of a colleague and the idea had reluctantly to be abandoned. By the beginning of June, 1823, Raffles had so far advanced the work entrusted to him that he was able to hand over the charge of the settlement to Mr, Crawfurd, who had been appointed to administer it. Somewhat earlier Raffles is revealed writing to a friend contrasting the bustle and prosperity of Singapore with the stagnation and costliness of his old charge. " At Bencoolen," he wrote, " the public expenses are more in one month than they are at Singa- pore in twelve. The capital turned at Bencoolen never exceeds 400,000 dollars in a year, and nearly the whole of this is in Company's bills on Bengal, the only returns that can be made ; at Singapore the capital turned in a year ex- ceeds eight millions, without any Government bills or civil establishment whatever." ■ Further suggestive facts were given by Raffles in a letter he wrote to the Supreme Government on January 15, 1823. In this he stated that the average annual charge for the settlement for the first three years of its establishment had not exceeded 60,000 Spanish dollars. " I had ■ " Memoir of Sir T. S. RafHes," p. 532.
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF IJRITISH MALAYA
33
anticipated," he proceeded, " tlic satisfaction of constructing all necessary public buildings free of expense to Government and of delivering over charge of the settlement at the end of the present year with an available revenue nearly equal to its expenses, and it is extremely morti- fying that the irregularities admitted by the local Resident oblige me to forego this ar- rangement." The irregularities alluded to in this despatch were committed by a local official employed in connection with the land transfers. He was a man of indifferent character who ought never to have been appointed to the post, and Farquhar's laxity in this and other respects drew upon him the severe censure of Raffles. The relations between the two became exceedingly strained in consequence. Even- tually Farquhar resigned, and his resignation was accepted, Mr, Crawfurd, as has been stated, being appointed as his successor. If the course of official life at Singapore in these days did not run smoothly, nothing could have been more harmonious than Raffles's relations with the mercantile community. In striking contrast with the contemptuous indifference displayed by the Indian bureaucrats who ruled in the Straits towards the civil community, Raffles deferred to it in every way compatible with the Government interests. The principles which guided him in this particular are lucidly set forth in a despatch he wrote to the Supreme Government, dated March 29, 1823. "I am satisfied," Raffles wrote, " that nothing has tended more to the discomfort and constant jarrings which have hitherto occurred in our remote settlements than the policy which has dictated the exclusion of the European mer- chants from all share, much less credit, in the domestic regulation of the settlement of which they are frequently its most important mem- bers." These liberal sentiments supply the key to Raffles's remarkable success as an adminis- trator, and they help to an understanding of the affectionate warmth with which the European community took -leave of him in the farewell address they presented on his departure from the settlement.
" To your unwearied zeal, your vigilance, and your comprehensive views," the memorial- ists said, "we owe at once the foundation and the maintenance of a settlement unparalleled for the liberality of the principles on which it has been established ; principles the operation of which has converted, in a period short beyond all example, a haunt of pirates into the abode of enterprise, security, and opulence. While we acknowledge our peculiar obligations to you, we reflect at the same time with pride and satisfaction upon the active and beneficent means by which you have promoted and patron- ised the diffusion of intellectual and m.oral im- provement, and we anticipate with confidence their happy influence in advancing the cause of humanity and civilisation."
In the course of his reply in acknowledgment of the address Raffles wrote : " It has happily been consistent with the poHcyof Great Britain and accordant with the principles of the East India Company that Singapore should be estab- lished as a free port, that no sinister, no sordid view, no considerations either of political im- portance or pecuniary advantage, should inter- fere with the broad and liberal principles on
which the British interests have been estab- lished. Monopoly and exclusive privileges, against which public opinion has long raised its voice, are here unknown, and while the free port of Singapore is allowed to continue and prosper, as it hitherto has done, the policy and liberality of the East India Companv, by whom the settlement was founded and under whose protection and control it is still adminis- tered, can never be disputed. That Singapore
settlement, I beg that you will accept my most sincere thanks. I know the feeling which dictated it, I acknowledge the delicacy with which it has been conveyed, and I prize most highly the gratifying terms to me personally in which it has been expressed."
An aff'ecting description of Raffles's departure from Singapore has been left in the Malay work already referred to by his ser\ant and friend, Abdullah. After mentioning various gifts that
STATUE OF SIR STAMFORD RAFFLES IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. ( Photographed specially for this work by permission of the Dean of Westminster.)
will long and always remain a free port, and that no taxes on trade or industry will be estab- lished to check its future rise and prosperity, I can have no doubt. I am justified in saying this much, on the authority of the Supreme Government of India, and on the authority of those who are most likely to have weight in the councils of our nation at home. For the public and peculiar mark of respect which you, gentlemen, ha\'e been desirous of showing me on the occasion of my departure from the
were made to him by the administrator and letters recommending him to officials as one to be trusted, Abdullah writes : "I could not speak, but I took the papers, while the tears streamed down my face without my being conscious of it. That day to part with Sir Stamford Raflles was to me as the death of my parents. My regret was not because of the benefits I had received or because of his greatness or attrac- tions ; but because of his character and attain- ments, because every word he said was sincere
B "*
34
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
HENDON CHURCH AND CHURCHYARD, IN WHICH SIR STAMFORD BAFFLES
IS BURIED. (The supposed position of tiie grave is tlie spot under tlie centre window in tlie middle foreground.)
and reliable, because he never exalted himself or depreciated others. All these things have remained in my heart till now, and though I have seen many distinguished men, many who were clever, who were rich, who were hand- some— for character, for the power of winning affection, and for talent and understanding, I have never seen the equal of Sir Stamford Raffles ; though I die and live again, I shall never find his peer. . . . When I had received the two letters. Sir Stamford and his lady went down to the sea, accompanied by an immense crowd of people of every nationality. I also went with them, and when they reached the ship they went on board, A moment later preparations were made to heave up the anchor, and Sir Stamford sent for me. I went into his cabin, and saw that he was wiping the tears from his eyes. He said, ' Go home ; you must not grieve, for, as I live, we shall meet again.' Then Lady Raffles came in and gave me twenty-five dollars, saying, ' This is for your children in Malacca.' When I heard that m\" heart was more than ever fired by the thought of their kindness. I thanked her and shook them both by the htind ; but I could not restrain my tears, so I hurriedly got into my boat and- pulled away. When we had gone some distance I looked back and saw Sir Stamford gazing from the port. I saluted him and he waved his hand. After some moments the sails filled and the ship moved slowly away."
This was Raffles's last view of Singapore. He proceeded to his charge at Bencoolen to resume the old life of masterly inactivity. But he fretted under the chains which bound him to the Far East, and longed to be once more in the Old Country to spend what he felt would be the short remaining period of his life.
Broken in health, weary in spirit, but with eager anticipations of a pleasant reunion with old friends, he with Lady Raffles embarked
■^mmmj/H
m;m.
" BAFFLESIA' ARNOLDI."
(Tile gigantic parasitic plant of Java and Sumatra dis- covered by Raffles.)
on February 2, 1824, on a small vessel called the Fame for England. Before the ship had barely got out of sight of the port a fire broke out in
the spirit store below Raffles's cabin, and within a short period the entire vessel was a mass of flames. With difficulty the passengers and crew escaped in boats, but all Raffles's manuscripts and his natural history collections, the product of many years' assiduous labour, perished. The loss was from many points of view irreparable, and, coming as it did after a succession of misfortunes, told on Raffles's already enfeebled constitution. But outwardly he accepted the calamity with philosophic calm, and prepared at once to make fresh arrangements for the return voyage. Another ship was fortunately available, and in this he and his wife made the voyage to England. There he met with every kindness from influential friends, and he settled down to a country life at Highwood Hill, Middlesex, having as his neighbour William Wilberforce, between whom and him there was a close tie of interest in their mutual horror of the slave trade. Here he died, after an attack of apoplexy, on July 5, 1826, and was buried in Hendon churchyard. His last days were clouded with troubles arising out of claims and charges made against him by the narrow-minded oligarchy of Leadenhall Street, who dealt with Raffles as they might have done with a refractory servant entitled to no consideration at their hands. It has remained for a later generation to do justice to the splendid qualities of the man and the enormous services he rendered to the Empire by his vigorous and far-seeing statesmanship.
Singapore's progress in the years immedi- ately following Raffles's departure was steadily maintained by a wise adherence to the princi- ples of administration which he had laid down. Mr. Crawfurd, his successor in the adminis- tration, was a man of broad and liberal views, who had served under Raffles in Java, and was imbued with his enlightened sentiments as to the conduct of the administration of a colony which depended for its success upon the unrestrained operations of commerce. In handing over charge to him Raffles had provided him with written instructions empha- sising the importance of early attention " to the beauty, regularity, and cleanliness of the settle- ment," and desiring him in particular to see that the width of the different roads and streets was fixed by authority, and " as much attention paid to the general style of building as circum- stances admit." These directions Crawfurd kept well in mind throughout his administration, with the result that the town gradually assumed
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!n mewory'of |
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Sir Thomas Sta!v,forij RAFhi^s. |
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F.R.S. U^.D.ETC, |
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Statesman, Administrator and NatufvalisT: |
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Founder of the Colony and C!ty of Singapore. January z2\ |
n8i9-. |
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Born July sj? i78i. Died at Highwood, Middlesex, July 5^4 |
I8Z6. |
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and buried near this Tablet. |
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Erected in isa? Br Members of the family. |
■TABLET TO SIR S'TAMFORD RAFFLES IN HENDON CHURCH,
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
35
an architectural dignity at tliat time quite un- Icnown in the European settlements in the East. The value of land in 1824, though small in comparison with the price now realised for property in the business quarter of Singapore, was very satisfactory, having regard to the brief period of the occupation and the un- certainty of the political situation. B'or plots with a So-feet frontage on the river and 150 feet deep, 3,000 dollars were paid, in addition to an annual quit-rent of 38 dollars. Resi- dential plots with an area of 1,200 square yards realised 400 dollars, in addition to an annual quit-rent of 28 dollars."
At this time there were twelve European fir-ms of standing established in the settlement in addition to - many reputable Chinese and Malay traders. Such was the growth of the commerce of the place that Crawfurd was impelled on August 23, 1824, to address a long despatch to the Supreme Government pleading for the establishment of a judicial department to deal with the many and complicated legal questions that were constantly arising. The charter of Prince of Wales Island, he thought, might be taken as a safe precedent, but he respectfully suggested that the judicial authority should be separate and distinct from the execu- tive, "as the surest means of rendering it independent and respectable." It took the Calcutta authorities a considerable time to digest this question, but in the long run Crawfurd's recommendations were adopted. On March 6, 1827, an official notification was issued to the effect that a Court of Judicature would be opened in Singapore, and that as a consequence the Resident's Court would be closed. The establishment of the judicial system followed upon the definitive occupation of the island, under the terms of the diplomatic understanding arrived at in London on March 17, 1824, between the British and the Dutch Governments. Under the agreement the Dutch formally recognised the British right to the settlement, and Crawfurd was instructed to give the fullest effect to it by completing a final treaty with the Sultan and the Temenggong. With some difficulty the compact was made on August 2, 1824. By its provisions the island of Singapore was ceded absolutely to the British Government, together with the sovereignty of the adjacent seas, straits, and islets to the limit of ten geographical miles from the Singapore coasts, and, acting on instructions, Crawfurd, on August 3, . 1824, embarked in the ship Malabar on a voyage round the island, with the object of notifying to all and sundry that the British really had come to stay.
Fullerton, a Madras civilian, was sent out as Governor, with Pinang as the seat of government. Meantime, Singapore had felt itself important enough to support a newspaper. This organ, the Singapore Chronicle and Com- mercial Advertiser, was a tiny sheet of four quarto pages, badly printed on rough paper, but answering, it may be supposed, all the needs of the infant settlement. Mr. C. B. Buckley, in his erudite " Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore," in alluding to this journal, states that in 1884 it was not possible to find any
are missing, as they must have contained much that was of interest. Mr. Crawfurd seems to have been a frequent contributor to the columns, and he was a writer, of no mean hterary skill, as his official despatches and his later contributions to the Edinburgh Review clearly attest. Still, the files, even in their incomplete condition, are highly instructive and illuminating as guides to the life of the settlement in the dawn of its existence. The first fact that is impressed upon the reader is the censorship which was then maintained
NO.
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•No. 12. dOVERNMENT.
NOTlFIC.lTtON. rpHE PlIIltlCAUJiHKRE- ' X B Y hifornit'd tbnt all fiirxofiK %oktin^ Lands, on the. Inland of Sin^;ip')rt\ under OninW itwiied hy Cir T. S. Rapflf,.;, Lacut. ^oyer- THoivfl'r under authority of Ijoca^- : «m Tickett< received front th« liitie |R<Aident Mr. Cmwfurd, uudwlin %uve coiuplied with the cnnditiulM" "tof the wauifi, are roiiuiped to n^icn '^h(*^-' Docnumntfl - into th« 0(H<m ■ef the t40d SnrVBjror, when tMr! ■will to flirtished <vitU frwUiiranlf', ••nthofized nnd coufirinfiii Jjy tht.^'
• ij^gltt Uunonihlc thu Oovampt; 0<)- -Kifcral hi Council.
AU I'freons who have W«A^ in fulfiilniK the temw of thi:ir OH-p- ' giual Contract toelW «nd hui|<^
• on the L«nd so .IwBtllwwl, at* to- quired to cnraplete tb<uc tngiii^
■ tntiita oiiL or t>efore'*ho: 1st of Mayj new, in default pf which, (.hs
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SINGAPORE CHRONICLE.'
CHAPTER III.
Early Days— The First Newspaper.
During the period of Crawfurd's adminis- tration Singapore was under the control of the Supreme Government ; but in 1826 the settlement was incorporated with Pinang and Malacca in one Government, and Mr.
I Resident-General's Report, Journal of the Indian Archipelago, ix. 468.
copy of the paper before 1831, and " there is not probably one in existence." Mr. Buckley, happily for the historian of Singapore, is mistaken. At the India Office there is preserved a practically complete file of the paper, com- mencing with the seventy-third number, published on January. 4, 1827. From inscrip- tions on the papers it appears that copies were regularly forwarded to Leadenhall Street for the information of the Court of Directors, and were bound up and kept for reference among the archives of the Secret Committee. It is unfortunate that the three earliest years' files
over the press in these settlements as in other territories under the administration of the East India Company. In the second number of the surviving copies of the journal we are con- fronted with this letter :
" Sir,— By desire of the Hon. Governor in Council I beg to forward for your guidance the enclosed rules applicable to the editors of newspapers in India and to intimate to you that the permission of Government for the publication of the Singapore Chronicle and Contiucrcial Advertiser is granted to you with
36
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
the clear understanding that you strictly adhere to these regulations.
"As you will now refrain from publishing anything in your paper which will involve an infringement of these rules it will no longer be necessary for you to submit for approval the proof sheet of each number of the Chronicle previous to its publication. " I am, Sir,
" Your obedient servant, "JoHx Prince, "Resident Councillor. "Singapore, Feb. 20, 1827."
The " Hon. Governor in Council " of this communication was, of course, Mr. Fullerton. This gentleman came from India filled with the characteristic hatred of the Anglo-Indian official of a free press. The smallest criticism of official action he resented as an insult ; a slighting reference to himself personally he regarded as lese majcstc. Apparently he had expected that his edict would be received with submissive respect by those whom it concerned. But he had reckoned without the spirit of independence which characterised the budding journalism of the Straits. The editor of the Chronicle, in publishing the Resident Coun- cillor's letter, accompanied it with this comment :
" We cannot err in saying that we receive these regulations with all the deference which an intimation of the wishes of the Government ought to command. They can form, however, but a feeble barrier against ' offensive remarks ' whilst there is a press in England over which the sic volo, sic jabeo of Indian authority can have no control. The rulers of India might as well attempt, like a celebrated despot of old, to enchain the waves as to place restrictions upon the press of England, and whilst that is the case their measures will be unsparingly cen- sured whenever they shall deserve it, and the remarks issuing from that source, no matter how contraband, will find their way round the Cape, and will be here read by all those, to a man, who would have read them had they been printed originally on the spot. When Ihis is so very plain, it is really no easy matter for the governed to discover the object of such regulations, unless, indeed, it be to prevent the evil effect which the remarks of wicked editors might be expected to produce upon the ' reading public ' among that lettered, and to the in- fluence of the press most susceptible people, the Malays."
This was bad enough in the eyes of the autocrat of Pinang, but there was worse to follow. On February 15, 1827, the editor, in referring to the suspension of a Calcutta editor for criticisms of official action in the Burmese War, remarked sarcastically that " however culpable the editor may have been in other respects, he has not perpetrated in his remarks the sin of novelty." Mr. Fullerton was furious at the audacity of the Singapore scribe, and caused to be transmitted to him what the Chronicle in its issue of March 29th described as "a very severe secretarial re- primand." He was still not intimidated, as is shown by the pointed announcement in the same number of the issue in Bengal of " a very ably conducted paper " under the name of
the Calcutta Gazette, with the motto, " Freedom which came at length, though slow to come." However, the official toils were closing around him. Peremptory orders were issued from Pinang for the muzzling of the daring jour- nalist. The editor seems to have got wind of the pleasant intentions of the Government, and indulged in this final shriek of liberty •
" Ghost of the Censorship.
"We thought that the censorship had been consigned to the ' tomb of the Capulets,' that common charnel-house of all that is worthless. Either we were mistaken, however, in sup- posing it thus disposed of, or its ghost, a spirit of unquiet conscience, continues to haunt these settlements. It is said to have been wandering to and fro, and to have arrived lately from Malacca in a vessel from which we would it had been exorcised and cast into the sea.
" The paper is going to the press, and we have but brief space in which to say that we have this moment heard that it is currently and on strong authority reported that Government has re-established the censorship in this settle- ment. That this is not yet the case we know, having received no official intimation to that effect, and until we receive this 'damning proof we will not believe that Government can have lapsed into a measure which will reflect on them such unspeakable discredit. We have heard much alleged against the present Government of Pinang, some part of which, since kings themselves are no longer deemed impeccable, may be just but we
never heard our rulers deemed so weak, so wavering, so infirm of purpose, as to promul- gate a set of admirable regulations to-day, and presto ! to revoke them to-morrow, restoring a censorship which of their own free motion and magnanimous accord they had just withdrawn, for what reason no sane person will be able to divine, unless it should chance to be for the very simple one of putting it on again. Should the Government have been guilty of an im- becility such as report assigns them, the world (if it ever hears of it) will very naturally conclude that "the removal of the censorship was a mere bait for applause in the expectation that Government would never be called upon for the exercise of the virtues of magnanimity and forbearance, and that editors could on all occasions shape their sentiments and the ex- pression of them by the line and rule of secretarial propriety."
The "intelligent anticipation" displayed by the editor in this clever and amusing comment was speedily justified by facts. On the morning following the publication of the paper in which it appears, the journalist received a letter from the Government at Pinang informing him that in future he must submit a proof of his paper previous to publication to the Resident Coun- cillor. The official version of the episode is to be found in a letter from Mr. Fullerton to the Court of Directors, dated August 29, 1827. In this the Governor wrote : " In consequence of some objectionable articles in the Singapore Chronicle, we considered it necessary to estab- lish rules similar to those estabhshed by the Supreme Government in 1818. This order was given under the supposition that the press was perfectly free, but it appearing that the censor-
ship had been previously imposed and that the very first publication subsequent to its removal having contained matter of a most offensive nature, we were under the necessity of re- imposing the censorship and censuring the editor. The proof sheet of each paper was also directed to be submitted in future to the Resident Councillor, which was assented to by Mr. Loch."
From this point the Singapore Chronicle presents the spectacle of decorous dulness which might be looked for in the circum- stances. But the Old Adam peeps out occa- sionally, as in a racy comment on the intimation of a Batavian editor that he intended to answer all attacks on Dutch policy in his journal, or in the rather wicked interpolation of rows of asterisks after an article from which the stinging tail has obviously been excised. Later, Mr. Loch again got into collision with Pinang, and there must have been rejoicing in official altitudes when, on March 26, 1829, he intimated that he was retiring from the editor- ship. The new editor was a man of a somewhat different stamp, judging from his introductory article. In this he intimated that he made no pretensions whatever to literai-y or scientific attainments. "The pursuits to which from a very early age we have been obliged to devote ourselves," he wrote, "have precluded- the possibility of our giving much attention to the cultivation of letters, so that our readers must not expect such valuable dissertations on the subjects we have alluded to as appeared in the first and second volumes of this journal." While the new editor was thus modest about his qualifications, he was not less strong in his opposition to the censorship than his pre- decessor. Shortly after he was inducted into the editorial chair he thus inveighed against the apathy of the general public on the subject : "An individual here and there touched with plebeianism may entertain certain unmannerly opinions as old-fashioned as the Glorious Revo- lution, but Monsieur notrc frcre may depend upon it that the mass of the public are not affected by this leaven, nor can be spurred into complaint by anything short of a stamp regula- tion or some other process of abstra<;tion, the effects of which become more speedily tan- gible to their senses than the evils arising from restriction upon the freedom of publi- cation."
Harassed by official autocrats and hampered by mechanical difficulties, the Singapore jour- nalism of early days left a good deal to be desired. Nevertheless, in these "brief and abstract chronicles" of the infant settlement we get a vivid picture of Singapore life as it was at that period. Sir Stamford Raffles's shadow still rested over the community. Xow we read an account of his death with what seems a very inadequate biography culled from " a morning paper " at home, and almost simultaneously appears an account of a move- ment for raising some monument to his honour. Later, there are festive gatherings, at which " the memory of Sir Stamford Raffles " is dnink in solemn silence. Meanwhile, a cutting from a London paper gives us a glimpse of Colonel Farquhar as the principal guest at an influen- tially attended banquet in the city. Local news consists mostly of records of the arrival
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
37
of ships. Occasionally we get a signilicant reminder of what " the good old times " in the Straits were like, as, for example, in the announcement of the arrival of a junk with a thousand Chinese on board on the verge of starvation because of the giving out of supplies, or in the information brought by incoming boats of bloody work by pirates a few miles beyond the limits of the port. Or again, in a report (published on September ii, 1828) of the arrival of the Abercrombie Robiiisoit, an East Indiaman from Bombay, after a voyage during which twenty-seven of the crew were carried off by cholera. On April 17, 1827, there is great excitement over the arrival in port of the first steamship ■ ever seen there — the Dutch Government vessel, Vandcr Capdlan. The Malays promptly christen her the Kapal Asap, or smoke vessel, and at a loss to discover by what means she is propelled, fall back on the comfortable theory that her motion is caused by the immediate agency of the evil one. Socially, life appears to run in agreeable lines. Now the handful of Europeans who compose the local society are foregathering at the annual assembly of the Raffles Club, at which there is much festivity, though the customary dance is not given, out of respect for the memory of the great administrator who had just passed away. At another time there is a brilliant entertainment at Government House in honour of the King's birthday, with an illumination of the hill which evokes the enthusiastic admiration of the reporter. Some one is even heroic enough to raise a proposal for the construction of a theatre, while there is a lively polemic on the evergreen subject of mixed bathing.
From the point of view of solid information these early Singapore papers are of exceptional interest and value. In them we are able to trace political currents which eddied about the settlement at this juncture, threatening at times to overwhelm it. One characteristic effusion of the period is an editorial comment on an announcement conveyed by a Pinang cor- respondent that the Government there was framing some custom-house regulations for Singapore, and was about to convene a meeting of Pinang jiierchants for the purpose of approving them. " Offensive remarks levelled at Councillors are prohibited," wrote the scribe in sarcastic allusion to the press regulations, " otherwise, though not disciples of Roche- foucauld, we might have ventured to doubt whether the merchants of Penang are precisely the most impartial advisers that Government could have selected as guides in a course of custom-house legislation for the port of Singa- pore.
" It is to be hoped the merchants of Penang may be cautious in what they approve. Trade may be as effectually injured by regulations as by customs-house exactions, and every new regulation added to the existing heap may be looked upon as an evil. Here it is the general
I " On the 17th April the Dutch steam vessel Vaiider Capellaii arrived here from Batavia, having made the passage from the latter place in seven liours. She is the first vessel that has ever been propelled by steam in these Straits, and the second steam vessel em- ployed to the eastward of the Cape, the Diana, of Calcutta, which proved of much service in the Burmese War, being the first."— Singapore Chronicle, April 26, 1827.
opinion that the extent of the trade of these ports is already known with sufficient accuracy for every wise and beneficent purpose ; that perfect exactness cannot be attained, and if it could, would be useless ; but that if the Court of Directors shall, notwithstanding, with the minuteness of retail grocers, persist in the pursuit of it and adopt a, system of petty and vexatious regulations (the case is a supposed one), it will be attended with inconvenience to the merchants and detriment to the trade and prosperity of these settlements." '
These spirited words arc suggestive of the prevalent local feeling at the time as to the interference of Pinang. Obviously there was deep resentment at the attitude implied in the reported statement that the concerns of Singa- pore were matters which Pinang must settle. Singapore at this time was decidedly "feeling its feet," and was conscious and confident of its destiny. A Calcutta paper having ventured upon the surmise that " Singapore is a bubble near exploding," the editor promptly took up the challenge in this fashion :
'• Men's prediclions are often an index to their wishes. Fortunately, however, the pros- perity of Singapore is fixed on too firm a foundation to be shaken by an artillery of surmises. Those who lift up their voices and prophesy against this place may, therefore, depend upon it they labour in a vain vocation unless they can at the same time render a reason for the faith that is in them by showing that the causes which have produced the past prosperity of the settlement either have ceased to operate or soon will do so. Till this is done their predictions are gratuitous and childish."
Side by side with this note appeared a de- scription of the Singapore of that day written by a Calcutta visitor. It was intended, it seemed, as a refutation of the bursting bubble theory, and it certainly is fairly conclusive proof of its absurdity. " Here," wrote the visitor, "there is more of an English port appearance than in almost any place I have visited in India. The native character and peculiarities seem to have merged more into the English aspect than I imagined possible, and I certainly think Singapore proves more satisfactorily than any place in our possession that it is possible to assimilate the Asiatic and the European very closely in the pursuits of commerce. The new appearance of the place is also very pleasing to the eye, and a great relief from the broken down, rotten, and decayed buildings of other ports in the peninsula. The regularity and width of the streets give Singa- pore a cheerful and healthy look, and the plying of boats and other craft in its river enlivens the scene not a little. At present here are no fewer than three ships of large burden loading for England. The vessels from all parts of the archipelago are also in great numbers and great variety. At Penang and Malacca the godowns of a merchant scarcely tell you what he deals in, or rather proclaim that he does nothing from the little bustle that prevails in them ; here you stumble at every step over the produce of China and the Straits in active preparation for being conveyed to all parts of the world."
These shrewd observations speak for them-
I Ibid., March 15, 1827.
selves, but if additional evidence is needed it is supplied by the population returns of the period which figure in the columns of the paper. Exclusive of the military, the inhabitants of Singapore in 1826 numbered, according to official computation, 10,307 males and 3,443 females. The details of the enumeration may be given, as they are of considerable interest :
|
Males. |
Vem.'iles. |
|
|
Europeans |
69 |
18 |
|
Armenians |
16 |
3 |
|
Native Christians ... |
128 |
60 |
|
Arabs |
18 |
8 |
|
Chinese |
S.747 |
341 |
|
Malays |
2,Sor |
2,289 |
|
Bugis |
666 |
576 |
|
Javanese |
174 |
93 |
|
Natives of Bengal ... |
209 |
35 |
|
Natives of the Coast |
||
|
of Coromandel |
772 |
5 |
|
Coffries |
2 |
3 |
|
Siamese |
5 |
2 |
Totals
10,307 3,443
The points of interest in this table are the smallness of the European population and the numerical strength of the Chinese community. The latter, it will be seen, numbered more than half the entire population and considerably exceeded the Malays. The circumstance shows that from the very outset of Singapore's career the Chinese played a leading part in its deve- lopment. Keen traders as a race, they recog- nised at once the splendid possibilities of the port for trade, and they no doubt appreciated to the full the value of the equal laws and opportunities which they enjoyed under the liberal constitution with which Raffles had endowed the settlement.
Mr. Fullerton, besides placing shackles on the press, distinguished himself by a raid on "interlopers," as all who had not the requisite licence of the East India Company to reside in their settlements were regarded. Most writers on Singapore history have represented his action in this particular as an independent display of autocratic zeal. But the records clearly show that he was acting under explicit instructions from the Court of Directors to call upon all European residents in the settlement to show their credentials. The circular which Fullerton issued brought to light that there were 26 unlicensed persons in the settlement, besides those who had no other licence than that of the local authority. The matter was referred home for consideration, with results which appear in the following despatch of September 30, 1829 ;
" The list which you have furnished of Europeans resident at this last settlement (Singapore) includes a considerable number of persons who have received no licence from us. We approve of your having made known to each of these individuals his liability to removal at our pleasure. Under the peculiar circumstances of this settlement it has not been our practice to discourage the resort of Euro- peans thither for the purpose of following any creditable occupation, and we perceive that all those who have recently arrived there have obtained respectable employment. We there- fore shall make no objection to their con- tinuance at the settlement while they fulfil
38
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
what you are to consider as the impHed con- dition of our sufferance in all such cases, that of conducting themselves with propriety." ■
This incident made Mr. Fullerton very un- popular with the European inhabitants, and about the same time he incurred the disfavour of the native population by the introduction of drastic land regulations based on the Madras model. The necessity for some action seems to have been urgent, judging from the tenor of an entry in the Singapore records under date August 29, 1827. It is here stated that during the administration of Mr. Crawfurd great laxity
payment at the rate of two rupees per acre of the land surveyed. Up to September 18, 1829, the ground covered included 4,909 acres of Singapore, 1,038 of St. George's in Blakang Mati Island, and 215 of Gage Island. It was then recommended that the survey should embrace the Bugis town, Rochar river, and Sandy Point, " by which the brick kilns and all the unoccupied land in that direction will be brought into the survey, as well as all the forts connected with the plan of defence." The pro- posals were adopted, and the survey finally completed by Mr. Coleman.
demurred to this, and declined to make any advance without direct authority. Thereupon the Recorder refused to proceed to Malacca and Singapore. Finding him obdurate, the Governor himself went to discharge the judicial duties in those ports. Before leaving he made a call for certain documents from the Court of Judicature, and received from Sir J. T. Claridge a flat refusal to supply them. Not to be frustrated, Mr. Fullerton sumrnoned a full court, and he and the Resident Councillor, as the majority, carried a resolution directing the documents to be supplied, and as a consequence
MAP OF Tue l'(>-'-< ■'■n f;.-'')7RO.'V.S
'-.--'A.' . j«i*->i
MAP OF SINGAPORE IN 1837.
was manifested in respect of the grant of loca- tion tickets. Those outstanding issued by Mr. Crawfurd alone (all for land in the vicinity of the town) amounted to within 14,000 acres of the whole computed area of the island, " although but a very inconsiderable space is cleared, and the greater part of the island is still an imper- vious forest." An almost necessary outcome of the new land system was the commencement of a topographical survey of the island. The work was entrusted to Mr. George D. Coleman^ the gentleman responsible for the act of van- dalism narrated in the previous chapter. Mr. Coleman erred on this occasion, but his name will always be linked with some of the most useful work associated with the building of Singapore. The survey was undertaken by Mr. Coleman independently on the basis of 1 " Straits Settlements Records," Xo. 195.
CHAPTER IV.
Introduction of the Judicial System — The Dawn of Municipal Government.
The arbitrariness shown by Mr. Fullerton in his administrative acts was extended to his relations with his official colleagues, and brought him into collision more than once with them. The most violent of these personal con- troversies, and in its effects the most important, was a quarrel with Sir J. T. Claridge, the Recorder, over a question relating to the latter's expenses on circuit. Sir J. T. Claridge contended that the demand made upon him under the new charter to- hold sessions at Singapore and Malacca entitled him to special expenses, and that these should be paid him before he went on circuit. Mr. Fullerton
they were supplied. Following upon these in- cidents Sir J. T. Claridge paid a visit to Cal- cutta, with the object of consulting his judicial brethren there on the points at issue in his controversy with the Governor. Apparently the advice given to him was that he had made a mistake in declining to transact his judicial duties. At all events, on returning to Pinang he intimated his readiness to proceed to Malacca and Singapore. The journey was undertaken in due course, but on arriving at Singapore Sir J. T. Claridge cast a veritable bomb into Government circles by a declaration from the bench that the Gaming Farm, from which a substantial proportion of the revenue of the settlement was derived, was illegal. Reluctantly the authorities relinquished the system, which had proved so convenient a means of filling their exchequer, and which
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
39
they were prepared to defend on the ground even of morality. In the meantime the struggle between the two functionaries had been trans- ferred to Leadenhall Street, and from thence came, in the latter part of 1829, an order for Sir J. T. Claridge's recall. The Recorder was at first disposed to complete the judicial work upon which he was engaged, but Mr. Fullerton would not hear of his remaining in office a minute longer, and he eventually embarked for England on September 7, 1829, much, no doubt, to the relief of his official associates at Pinang. On arrival home Sir J. T. Claridge appealed to the Privy Council against his recall, but with- out avail. The Council, while holding that no imputation rested upon his capacity or integrity in the discharge of his judicial functions, con- sidered that his conduct had been such as to justify his dismissal. The effect of the decision was to re-establish the court under the old charter, and Sir Benjamin Malkin was sent out as Recorder. He assumed his duties in the Straits in 1833.
The introduction of a regular judicial system had one important consequence not contem- plated probably by the officialdom of the Straits when the charter was given. It opened the way to municipal government. Early in 1827 a body called the Committee of Assessors was appointed in Pinang to super- vise the cleansing, watching, and keeping in repair of the streets of the settlement, and the following editorial notice in the Singapore Chronicle of April 26th of the same year appears to indicate that an analogous body was set up in Singapore :
"We adverted a short time ago to the im- provements carrying on and contemplated by the Committee of Assessors, and we hope that the kindness of our friends will enable us in a future number to give a detailed account of them all. We understand that the Govern- ment, with their accustomed liberality wherever the interests of the island are concerned, have not only warmly sanctioned, but have promised to bear half the expenses of the projected new roads ; and we hope that their aid will be equally extended to the other improvements which are projected."
The editor went on to suggest the holding of a, lottery as a means of raising funds. This question of funds was a difficulty which appa- rently sterilised the nascent activities of the pioneer municipal body. At all events its existence was a brief one, as is evident from a presentment made by the grand jury at the quarter sessions in February, 1829, over which Sir J. T. Claridge presided. The grand jury requested the authorities "to take into con- sideration the expediency and advantage of appointing a committee of assessors, chosen from amongst the principal inhabitants of the settlement, for the purpose of carrying into effect without delay a fair and equitable assess- ment of the property of each inhabitant in houses, land, &c., for the maintenance of an efficient night police, and for repairing the roads, bridges, &c." The suggestion called forth the following observations from the Recorder ;
" As to that part of your presentment which relates to roads and bridges and that which relates to the police, I must refer you to the
printed copies of the charter (page 46) by which the court is authorised and empowered to hold a general and quarter sessions of the peace, and to give orders touching the making, repairs, and cleansing of the roads, streets, bridges, and ferries, and for the removal and abatement of public nuisances, and for such other purposes of police, and for the appoint- ment of peace officers and the trial and punish- ment of misdemeanours, and doing such other acts as are usually done by justices of the peace at their general and quarter sessions in England as nearly as circumstances will admit and shall require." The Recorder then stated the manner in which these matters were conducted in England, and concluded by observing that "as it would be nugatory to empower the court of quarter sessions to give orders touch- ing the several matters specified unless they have also the means of carrying such orders into effect, I think the court of quarter sessions may legally make a rate for the above purpose."
In consequence of this the magistrates con- vened a meeting of the principal inhabitants to discuss the matter. At this gathering they proposed as a matter of courtesy to admit a certain number of merchants to act with them as assessors, but at the same time gave the meeting to understand that they alone pos- sessed the power to enforce the payment of the assessments. None of the merchants, however, would consent to act. They declined on the ground that as they possessed no legal authority to act they could exercise no efficient check. They intimated, furthermore, that they had complete confidence in the integrity of the present bench. Subsequently the magistrates issued a notification that a rate of 5 per cent, would be made on the rents of all houses in Singapore. There was at the outset some dis- position on the part of the officials to question the legality of this assessment, but in the end the magistrates' power to make a rate was acknowledged and Singapore entered smoothly upon its municipal life.
Some years later the Committee of Assessors here and at Malacca and Pinang developed into a Municipal Board, constituted under an Act of the Legislative Council of India. The authority consisted of five Commis,sioners, two of whom were nominated by the Government and three elected by ratepayers who con- tributed 25 dollars annually of assessed taxes.
Though to a certain extent these were days of progress in Singapore, some of the official records read strangely at the present time, when Singapore is one of the great coaling stations and cable centres of the world. Take the following entry of June 21, 1826, as an ex- ample : " We are not aware of any other means of procuring coal at the Eastern settle- ments excepting that of making purchases from time to time out of the ships from Europe and New South Wales. Under instructions received from the Supreme Government we made a pur- chase a short time since of forty tons of the article from the last-mentioned country at the price of 14 Spanish dollars per ton." The spectacle of the Singapore Government relying upon passing ships for their supplies of coal is one which will strike the present-day resident in the Straits as comic. But it is not, perhaps, so amusing as the attitude taken up by the Leadenhall Street
magnates on the subject of telegraphy. In 1827, the Inspector-General having urged the ex- pediency of establishing telegraphic communi- cation between several points on the main island, the local Government directed him to submit an estimate of the probable cost of three telegraph stations, and meantime they authorised the appointment of two Europeans as signalmen on a salary of Rs. 50 a month. In due course the minute relating to the subject was forwarded home, with a further proposal for the erection of a lighthouse. The Court of Directors appear to have been astounded at the audacity of the telegraphic proposal. In a des- patch dated June 17, 1829, they wrote : " You will probably not find it expedient to erect at present the proposed lighthouse at Singapore, and we positively interdict you from acting upon the projected plan for telegraphic com- munication. We can conceive no rational use for the establishment of telegraphs in such a situation as that of Singapore." " No rational use " for telegraphs in Singapore ! How those old autocrats of the East India Office would rub their eyes if they could see Singapore as it is to-day — the great nerve centre from which the cable sj'stem of the Eastern world radiates ! But no doubt the Court of Directors acted according to the best of their judgment. Singapore in those far-off times wanted many things, and telegraphic communication might well appear an unnecessary extravagance beside them. For example, the island was so defenceless that in 1827, on the receipt of a false rumour that war had been declared between Great Britain and France and Spain, orders had to be given for the renewal of the carriages of guns at the temporary battery erected on the occupation of the island and for " the clearing of the Point at the entrance to the creek for the purpose of laying a platform battery." About the same time we find the Resident Councillor urging the necessity of erecting public buildings, " the few public buildings now at Singapore being in a very dilapidated state, and others being urgently required to be built." Meanwhile, he intimates that he has " engaged anew house, nearly com- pleted, for a court-house and Recorder's chambers at a yearly rental of 6,000 dollars for three years, it being the only house in the island adapted for the purpose." Another passage in the same communication states that owing to the " very improper and inconvenient situation of the burial ground on the side of Government Hill" the Inspector-General had selected " a more suitable spot in the vicinity of the town, which vi'e have directed to be walled in."
Sir J. T, Claridge's judicial dictum that "gambling was an indictable offence" was a source of considerable embarrassment to the Government. The substantial sum derived from the farming of the right to keep licensed gaming-houses could not be readily sacrificed. On the other hand, it was manifestly impossible to disregard the opinion of the highest judicial authority in the settlements. Acting in a spirit of indecision, the Government reluctantly sus- pended the Gaming Farm system. The dis- organisation to the finance which resulted from the action was considerable, and with the de- parture of Sir J. T. Claridge it seems to have
40
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
been felt that his opinion might be disregarded. The machinery consequently was set in m.otion again after the issue of a minute by Mr. Fuller- ton affirming the legality of this method of raising the revenue. The effect upon the revenue was very marked. The receipts advanced from Rs. 95,482.11.10 in 1829-30 to Rs. 177,880.15 in the year 1830-31.
The Singapore administration as a whole at this juncture was in a state of no little con- fusion, owing to changes which were impending in the constitution of the Straits. In 1827 Lord William Bentinck, the Governor-General, had descended upon the settlements infused with what the local officialdom regarded as an un- holy zeal for economy. On arriving at Pinang he professed not to be able to see what the island was like for the number of cocked hats in the way. Forthwith he proceeded to cut down the extravagant establishment maintained there. He visited Singapore, and his sharp eye detected many weak points in the adminis- trative armour. The official shears were exer- cised in various directions, and retrenchment was so sternly enforced that Mr. Fullerton felt himself constrained to withdraw the official subsidies, or, as tliey preferred to regard them, subscriptions, from the local press. The Malacca editor kicked against the pricks, and found himself in difficulties in consequence. At Singapore a more philosophical view was taken of the Government action. It was argued that if Government was at liberty to withdraw its subscription the editor was free
to withhold his papers and close his columns to Government announcements. Acting on this principle, he informed the authorities that they could no longer be supplied with the
LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK. (From an engraving in tlie British Museum.)
eleven free copies of the journal they had been in the habit of receiving. The officials retorted with a more rigorous censorship. And so the battle was waged until Mr. Fullerton finally
shook the dust of the Straits from his feet in the middle of 1830. Before this period arrived a great change had been made in the govern- ment of Singapore. As a result of Lord William Bentinck's visit the settlement, in com- mon with Pinang and Malacca, were in 1830 put under the control of the Government of Bengal. The change was sanctioned in a despatch of the Supreme Government dated May 25, 1830. In this communication the headquarters of the new administration was fixed at Singapore, with Mr. Fullerton as " Chief Resident " on a salary of Rs. 36,000. Under him were a First Assistant, with a salary of Rs. 24,000, and a Second Assistant, with Rs. 10,000. The chief officials at Pinang and Malacca were styled Deputy-Residents, and their emoluments were fixed at Rs. 30,000 for the former and Rs. 24,000 for the latter. Two chaplains, with salaries of Rs. 9,600, and a. missionary, with Rs. 2,500, were part of the estabUshment.
Mr. Fullerton remained only a few months in chief control at Singapore. Before he handed over control to his successor, Mr. Ibbetson, he penned a long and able minute on the trade of the three settlements. He gave the following figures as representative of the imports and exports for the official year 1828-29 ■
|
Rs. |
|
|
Imports |
... 1,76,40,969! |
|
Exports |
- i,58,25.997i |
This paragraph relative to the method of
SINGAPORE FROM THE ESPLANADE. (From Captain Bethune's "Views in the Eastern Archipelago," published 1847.)
TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF BRITISH MALAYA
41
trading followed in Singapore is of interest from the light it throws on the early commercial system of the settlement : " In considering the extent of the trade at Singapore, rated not in goods but in money, some reference must be had to the peculiar method in which all com- mercial dealings are there conducted ; the unceasing drain of specie leaves not any scarcely in the place. Specie, therefore, never enters into any common transaction. All goods are disposed of on credit, generally for two months, and to intermediate native Chinese merchants, and those at the expiration of the period deliver in return not money, but articles of Straits produce adapted to the return cargo ; the value on both sides of the transaction is rated from 25 to 30 per cent, beyond the sum that would be paid in ready cash ; and as the price current from which the statement is rated is the barter and not the ready money price, the real value of the trade may be computed 30 per cent, under the amount stated." '
About this period a curious question, arising out of the occupation of the island, gave a con- siderable amount of trouble to the authorities- By the terms of the Treaty of 1815 the United States trade with the Eastern dependencies of Great Britain was confined to Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Pinang. The .construction put upon this provision by the Straits officials was that Singapore, even when under the govern- ment of Pinang, was not a port at which the citizens of the United States could trade. The consequence was that American ships, then very numerous in these seas, touched only at Singa- pore and proceeded to Riau, where they shipped cargo vi/hich had been sent on from the British port. The practice was not only irk- some to the Americans, but it was detrimental to British trade in that it diverted to the Dutch port much business which would otherwise have been transacted at Singapore. Eventually, in March, 1830, the Singapore Government, yielding to the pressure which was put upon them, agreed to allow American vessels to trade with Singapore. But they intimated that " it must be understood that such permission cannot of itself legalise the act should other public officers having due authority proceed against the ships on the ground of illegality." The concession was freely availed of, and the mercantile marine of the United States played no small part in the next few years in build- ing up the great trade