THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 554, 28 March 1876, Page 4

THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

The correspondent of the Argus , writing from Singapore on February 11th, says : “ The affairs in the Malayan Peninsula are still at sixei and sevens. Fighting is over in Singi Ujong, one part of the peninsula nearest to Malacca, and there is not much of it-in Perak, another part nearest to Penang. But the fighting is hardly fit for white men to engage in. The fact is there has been very little of the real thing anywhere, though the Times, the Standard , and the Telegraph have made heroes of the giants who stormed molehills and shot runaway Malays. There has been a complete mismanagement of the whole affair. No one seemed to have the slightest idea about the business they had in hand, or the proper way to set about doing it. There was a blunder over the flatbottomed boats built to ply on the Perak River, which were not strong enough to be towed against the stream, most awful grumblings against the commissariat, and the supply of ammunition was not even adequate to the small demand for it.

“After a sojourn for about three months which part of the colony is only about seventeen hours’ steam from Perak, the Governor, Sir William Jervois, has returned to his capital. Singapore. Soon after his arrival he was waited upon by a deputation of non-official members of the Legislative Council, which ‘wanted to know, you know,’ all about what had been done and what was intended to be done with Perak and the other states on the Malayan Peninsula when quiet was restored. Bis Excellency appointed a meeting of Council, to take place on the 30th of January, to hear a statement to that effect. Between the interview and the day named Sir William appeared to have changed his mind, and at the meeting made no statement at all, except to the effect that Lord Carnarvon was opposed to annexation. The non-officials naturally grumbled at this, and to such effect that His Excellency was induced to telegraph home for advice. The reply was very curt : ‘ The home authorities will state when the fitting time comes what course is intended to be pursued. Answer [Councillors] you are not authorised to make any statement at present.’ This telegram was read by the Governor to the Council last Saturday, February sth, and caused very little surprise to any one, except perhaps his Excellency himself, who discovered, rather too late, that the question was an Imperial one, with which the colonial Legislature was not competent to deal. “ And thus the matter of the Perak war now stands. We have not apprehended the assassin of Mr Birch, nor have accomplished a single beneficial object. We have lost the services of three or four brave, experienced, and skilful officers, besides many men, both European and Ghoorkhas, and spent altogether close on a million sterling, one way and another, to no purpose. What Parliament will say when it meets can be guessed. “ The Japanese are going to fight Corea. Some time back the Americans sent a party up the Corean River to give the people on it a lesson in good manners, and teach them in future to respect the stars and stripes, which meteor flag had not protected a wrecked ship some months previously. The Americans, however, were taught themselves not to despise any enemy, though apparently weaker than themselves. They were ignominiously driven back, and the attempt at teaching on their part was not renewed. How the Japanese will get on is a point which will be soon decided. They do not in end to do things by halves. They sent an ambassador last month to lay their ultimatum before the Goreans. The embassy was to be conveyed in an ironclad, and escorted by a fleet of four similar vessels and half a dozen gunboats, with a large number of troops on board. With these the Japanese newspapers anticipate an easy victory. This expedition is undertaken as much as a safetyvalve to let off some of the superfluous military energy and evil spirits of the large standing army of Japan, as to punish the Ooreans. The fact is, the cause of the dispute between the two nations is one of such long standing as to be past finding out, The two have always been at loggerheads. “ Spain, too, is going to have its little war in the Bast. Really, we revel in war and rumors of war in the Orient. The Dutch are at war in Acheen, we ourselves in the Straits, the Japanese and the Ooreans, and now Spain is about to exterminate by an expedition from Manila the pirates infesting the Sooloo Islands, and ‘ plant thereon for ever the cross of the Redeemer, and the glorious flag of Castillo.’ The expedition is to be conducted on evangelistic principles. It will be not so much a state as a church affair, and in a great measure carried out by contributions. A Spanish bouse at Liverpool has placed the Lean, of 1650 tons, one of their monthly line of steamers between that port and Manila, at the disposal of the Government, free of cost. A local Manila firm has offered 2000dol to the Government, and—highly useful in spreading true religion—4oo gallons of rum ; public subscription is being made to reward the first invalided soldier of the expedition ; a second firm has offered a barque free of charge, and ‘Donna Maria Oonsolacion Eoa, on account of her sex unable to make a personal offer of her services, begs the Government to accept the use of her brigantine Pilar free of cost.’ Then comes the aid of Holy Church. « Seven chaplains accompany the expedition. Spain has made her greatest conquests with the cross and sword, and never more than on the present occasion was the symbol of Christ requisite.’ To go forth to fight pirates in this spirit should be enough to ensure success, but the culmination of strength is recorded by the Oriente, when it proudly boasts that ‘3OO scapularies have been blessed by one of the chaplains ere hanging them round the necks of 300 of the soldiers destined for Sooloo. ’ After this what doubt can any reasonable mind entertain of the success of the expedition. The failure of the royal army in Cuba may perhaps be attributable to a dearth of blessed scapularies.

“The news from China is uninteresting. Mr Grosvenor’s party has reached about twothirds of the way to the northward in safety. There is a British force on the way tc Bhamo, to meet the exploring party sent from Burmah, to inquire into Margarey’s fate, and is to march through the territory of the King of Upper Burmah undisturbed. So it appears that the potentate of a thousand umbrellas is beginning to act honestly and reasonably. This staves off any disturbance in that part of the world for a time. The trial of the conspirators charged with attempting to blow up the arsenal at Rangooi is postponed till the Supreme Court sitting on the aotb instant,"