THE SITUATION IN PERAK.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 478, 29 December 1875, Page 4

THE SITUATION IN PERAK.

The Argus of November 13th contained the following telegram from Batavia, dated November 11th :—“ Mr Birch, the British Commissioner at Perak, in the Malayan Peninsula, has been brutally murdered by Malays. Sir William Jervois, the Governor of the Straits settlements, proceeded to Perak with troops, and in the fighting which took place one officer was killed, and two officers and eight men wounded.” Some explanation of the state of affairs which led up to this outrage is given in the Straits Times of October 2nd :

There are signs not a few that the “ new order of things” in the Malay Peninsula is undergoing the same process as that which Prince Albert said Parliamentary Government was going through—it is on its trial—or rather, it is passing through a troublesome time, which it will require no small resolution, judgment, and decision on the part of Sir William Jervois to surmount with the credit and success which are now absolute necessities of the situation. And the trouble seems to owe its origin mainly to the chiefs of Perak and Laroot, the very men who first of all begged for Sir Andrew Clark’s interposition to establish order and good government in their country. Little is known to the outside public of what has really transpired in Perak since the signing of the Pangkor treaty or engagement in February last year. At first the reports were all of a rose colour description, and they were confirmed by the first official reports of the British resident and his assistant-resident. During the last six months, however, or perhaps since the beginning of this year, many rumors, all more or less vague, of something going wrong have been current, and these rumors have of late been assuming more and more definite shape. They all refer to the intractable conduct of the young Sultan Abdullah and his chiefsjand followers. They are said to pay no regard whatever to the British Resident, and, in fact, as far as they think they dare to, have assumed a positively hostile attitude towards Mr Birch. The Sultan is reported to have resumed his old practices of levying black mail or squeezes whenever the Resident’s back is turned, and in this the petty rajahs all over the country are faithfully copying his example, as they used to do before February, 1874. The old ex-Sultan Ismail has never given his adhesion to the Pangkor treaty, and keeps fast hold of the regalia. He is said to be supported by the whole of the people of the interior, and in fact he nu-i tains the attitude of passive resistance, if not sulky defiance, which he assumed from the first to the advances made to him bj Sir Andrew Clarke and his lieutenants. The state of affairs in Laroot ■is saidjto be on quite a different footing, and indeed to be. on the whole satisfactory, which is not to be wondered at, since the population is principally Chinese, who are perfectly satisfied with British superintendence, and can keep the peace when they please, as long as they can make money and prosper. Now it will bo acknowledged by all that the turn which affairs seem to have taken in Perak is very disappointing, and that ihe actual ■ situation is a grave one. The first question is, what is to be done? And the next equally important question is, should not gome decided course be taken with as little delay as possible? It has been generally understood that his Excellency the Governor pain his late somewhat hurried visit to Perak with the express object of finding out and judging for himself how things actually stand. It is possible that the rumours we have alluded to are exaggerated and misleading, but since his Excellency’s return nothing definite, so far as we are aware, has transpired as to the results of the visit or with regard to his Excellency’s impressions as to the existing state of affairs. This, of course, may be owing to the exigencies of official etiquette, but we are inclined to think that if there had been any good news to tell it would have oozed out somehow, and it is an ominous fact that Sultan Abdullah, whose visit to Singapore in company with Mr Birch seems to have been arranged during the Governor’s visit, now flatly refuses to come. The question then is, as we have said, what is to be done under these circumstances, and it appears to us clear that only one answer ean be given to this question consistent with the honour and dignity of the British Government. The answer is, enforce the treaty firmly and at all hazards, without delay, hesitation, or swerving to the right or left one iota. Of course, we assume that the British Resident has filled his difficult and delicate position with the “ great prudence, watchfulness, and tact,” which Earl Carnarvon enjoined in sanctioning the appointment of Residents. And we further assume that the young Sultan Abdullah, who owes his position mainly to the treaty of Pangkor, is wholly to blame in the difficulties which have arisen. He should be told plainly that he must amend his ways, or evil will surely befal him. The Secretary of State, in his despatch dated 4th September, 1874, which we published the other day, has the following two paragraphs, which the Sultan will do well to study. “ I do not propose to offer any detailed criticism on the Perak engagement, of which I generally approve ; and you will acquaint the several chiefs who have entered into these agreements that Her Majesty’s Government have learnt with much satis faction that they have now combined undei your advice to put a stop once for all to the reign of anarchy and piracy which has unhappily so long been allowed to prevail, and which naturally resulted in the cessation of aP legitimate trade, and the impoverishment of the country. “You will at the same time inform them that Her Majesty’s Government will look to the fulfilment of the pledges which hav( SOW bees voluntarily given, and will bold

responsible those who violate the engagement which has been solemnly agreed upon.” This is sufficiently plain speaking, about which there can be no mistake or misunderstanding. It is not to be supposed that such language would be used as a mere facon de purler , without any meaning attached to it. It seems to us to render Sir William Jervois 1 course clear and unmistakeable. It will, indeed, be nothing less than a public calamity should any fear of responsibility induce delay or indecision, or inaction, for the purpose of reference to Downing street, in taking a bold and decided line of policy, taking the bull by the horns in fact, in dealing with this weak and faithless prince, If he does not know the sacredness of a treaty, the sooner he is taught the better for himself and the country which he misgoverns, and which he is doing his best to relegate to its former state of anarchy, that proved, and will prove again, unendurable to its neighbors.

The same journal says in another place ; The present position of our Government with respect to the native states of the Peninsula is full of difficulty and embarrassment. Perak, the state where Sir Andrew Clarke’s policy of friendly protection first assumed a definite form, has so far failed to justify the bright promise for the future given by the ready acquiescence of Sultan Abdullah and the Perak chiefs in the Perak engagement ; and, as this engagement has formed the foundation stone of our subsequent dealings with the Sultan of Salangore and the lesser chiefs, it is clear that upon its success or failure must depend the fate of the whole fabric. On the one hand, we have a Sultan without the support of bis people; on the other, the danger of a total failure of the policy only lately inaugurated, from which so much was hoped, both for the honor of the British name and for the future prosperity and good government of the native states—for it it is certain that failure in Perak will be fatal to the success of our policy in other parts of the Peninsula. Possibly something may yet be done with small, but there is little hope of this without he be recognised as the de facto Sultan, and subscribes his adherence to the treaty entered into with Abdullah.

Failure to carry out the programme our Government has sketched out would be interpreted by the Malay rulers not as a mere error of judgment in the means employed, but as an admission of inherent weakness and inability to exercise proper supervision over them, and would be disastrous to our prestige in places where the acknowledgement of our supremacy is most essential to the protection of the trade of the colony, the safety of commerce, and the lives and property of British subjects.