Chapter VIII - BRITISH INTERVENTION.

Well enough one of the Chinese leaders in Larut exclaimed: " When the British flag is seen over Perak, every Chinese will go down on his knees and bless God." As early as 1864 the Singapore newspapers had suggested that England should offer to purchase the country, but at that time Singapore can hardly have had firsthand knowledge of social conditions under Malay rule in Perak. None but a Muslim had legal rights. The Perak Code laid it down, for example, that forest land became the property of the person who cleared it, only provided he was a Muhammadan. The aborigines, as infidels, were hunted down and enslaved and, as Mr. Birch wrote in 1874, not the slightest notice was taken of the murder of a Sakai. Even the Muslim infirm can hardly be said to have enjoyed rights in a society where might only counted. When Sultan Muzaffar Shah was suffering from his last illness, a mad woman found in the palace was killed as a witch. In the reign of his successor, Iskandar Shah, the Sri Maharaja had allowed one of his dependents, a Tamil Muslim girl, to become betrothed but withdrew his permission, wanting to marry her himself: her fiance seized her by force but was thwarted by the aggrieved chief giving her to the Sultan as a slave!

And the condition of slaves in Perak was pitiable. Malay Codes are often academic but little can be expected from practice when the Perak law prescribed that " if a slave assaults a free-man, he shall be assaulted in turn and have his hands nailed down, while the free-man shall be at liberty to enjoy the slave's wife." " The loan of a slave was like the borrowing of a stick." Any man harbouring a runaway slave had his ears fillipped with a small rattan and any female harbourer had her head shaved and was beaten. On the discovery of the pregnancy of a female slave, her purchaser could return her as damaged goods but her child remained his property.

In 1874 there were 3,000 slaves in Perak, one sixteenth of the whole population. " Every Raja and Chief was accompanied, when he went abroad and was served at home, by numerous dependents, debts-bondsmen and slaves, who lived in or near his house and belonged to his household. If they misbehaved, they might be beaten and tortured, and slaves might be killed. . . . The desire to possess some particular person sometimes led to the invention of fictitious debts, and people were liable with little hope of redress to be dragged from their homes.... No work that debt-bondsmen performed for their creditors and masters operated to lessen the debt: they served in his household, cultivated his fields and worked in his mines, but such service was merely a necessary incident of their position.... Sometimes the master fed and clothed them but more often they had to supply themselves with all

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necessaries notwithstanding that their labour was forfeited to the master's service." In Perak there was seldom recognition of the right of a female debtor to freedom once she had become her master's mistress. Nor was heed paid to the rule that wife and children could not be held liable for a debt incurred without their knowledge. In Kinta the debts of bondsmen were swelled by a species of compound interest. A man might owe a bahar of tin: if he did not pay in six months, local custom made him liable for a bahar at the Penang price, say three times its value in Kinta. The debt was then put down at three bahar! And every six months the same compound calculation was repeated!

Class distinctions were rigid. In the districts of Kampar, Sungkai and Pulau Tiga, where there were no powerful chiefs to protect their dependents, royal messengers could carry the ruler's creese or sword and carry off the young women to become palace attendants. " Usually they led a life of prostitution with the knowledge and consent of the Raja and his household, and by their means a number of male attendants were always about the court and the importance of the Raja was thereby outwardly increased." To strike a royal slave involved the penalty of death. Anybody who enticed a royal slave away had to make good the value fourteenfold: if the slave belonged to a Raja, sevenfold; if to a Mantri, five-fold; if to a Sayid, three-fold; if to a common person, two-fold: too poor to pay, the enticer was killed.

In Krian in 1874 it was difficult to get $10 an orlong for excellent rice-land, the price being calculated merely on the cost of the labour for clearing the field: when the British introduced security of tenure, the price rose to $60 or $70. For under Malay custom no subject could hold freehold property or enjoy more than the usufruct of land, conditional on continuous occupation, the payment of tithe and taxes and the rendering of customary services or in other words forced labour. " Whenever the Sultan or any Raja or Chief of sufficient authority," I quote Sir Frank Swettenham, " wanted labour for any public or private work—such as the clearing of a river, the building of a mosque or house, the manning of boats for a journey, then all the men within reach were summoned, through the village headmen, to come and undertake this forced labour, for which no payment was ever made, and though the labourers were supposed to be fed as long as the work lasted, that was not always done." And famine was frequent and food an ever present worry. Poor as the harvests were and at the mercy of an uncertain rainfall, produce and cattle and poultry-were likely to be seized by invaders as Colonel Low found in 1826 the Siamese had seized them.

Taxation was heavy. Export duties were: $6 to $10 a bahar on tin, $3 a pikul on gutta, $2 a pikul on resins, $1.25 a pikul on hides, $2 on a 100 rattans. There are numerous import duties: $4 a koyan on rice, $50 a chest on opium, $16 a koyan on salt,

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$2 a pikul on Javanese and $1.50 a pikul on Chinese tobacco; 2½ per cent, ad valorem on cottons and silks. At every river-mouth the local chief had a custom-station and duties were demanded at every station past which goods were conveyed! Even " Eyes," the equivalent of the modern policeman got his tithe of poultry, rope, pots and pans, needles, gold and silk thread, coconuts and fish and demanded $2 a mast from vessels passing his coign of vantage.

There were no anaesthetics for those wounded in the constant fighting and no cure for malaria, beri-beri and yaws. The dread of disease took the form of dread of ghostly powers, so that the State, which did nothing else for the creature comforts of the people, used periodically to consult their welfare by organising great ceremonies to expel malignant demons from its borders and propitiate kindly guardian influences. It was ceremony that made life tolerable for the Perak peasant—ceremony and the feudal system. Raped, tortured or enslaved, every individual commanded the interest of somebody, even if it were a malevolent interest. The peasant was the hewer of wood and drawer of water at the births and marriages of his chiefs and he cut and carried their huge biers but he saw the show and took part in it. His masters lived for ceremonies their only amusement, and destiny was now about to stage two fateful ceremonies, first the installation as ruler, of Bendahara Isma'il, and a little later a shaman's seance which was produced in evidence that cost the lives of two great Perak chiefs and the exile of a Sultan.

Generally a Perak Sultan is succeeded by the Raja Muda. The Bendahara or Prime Minister takes possession of the regalia of the deceased ruler and temporarily administers the government. At the expiration of seven days he sends or heads a deputation to the Raja Muda inviting him as heir-presumptive to attend the obsequies and be installed as Sultan. Accordingly after the death of Sultan 'Ali at Sayong on 26 May 1871, Raja Muda 'Abdu'llah, son of Sultan Ja'far and brother-in-law of Sultan 'Ali, was invited to attend the obsequies. The invitation was not in proper form, as none of the upcountry chiefs wanted him for their ruler. No yellow umbrella and no house-boat accompanied the invitation. The first invitation came not from Bendahara Isma'il but from 'Abdu'llah's brother-in-law, son of the deceased Sultan, who sent a messenger wearing one of the deceased's kerchiefs, a more polite intimation than any missive but still not formal. 'Abdu'llah hesitated to go to Sayong as he feared that on the way upriver he might be attacked at Senggang by another claimant Raja Yusuf. So the Bendahara sent—no yellow umbrella, no big chief to invite his attendance but first To' Dewa of Lambor and then S'inda Maharaja. Meanwhile, disgusted at her consort's cowardice, 'Abdu'llah's wife (sister of the dead Sultan), Raja Tipah, ran away with Raja Daud, a Selangor raja. At Durian Sa-batang the Laksamana trained his guns on the abductor's boat but Raja Daud

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tied himself to Raja Tipah and defied the Laksamana to shed the white blood of a Perak princess. 'Abduilah divorced his erring spouse and attempted no revenge. But how could he face her nephew at Sayong? or Ismail, who had adopted her? or Raja Yusuf contemptuous of weaklings and cowards? After waiting thirty-two days with the body of their late king an offence to heaven, the chiefs lost patience and on 28 June installed Ismail, who had been Bendahara to two Sultans. The new ruler took the title of Ismail Mu'abidin Shah and was accepted by all the chiefs (except the Laksamana) and at first by the British government. But trouble soon began. Ismail took the official scales of the customs officer at Kuala Perak away from the Laksamana's son and gave them to a chief just appointed by himself, the Raja Mahkota. Raja Muda 'Abduilah and the Shahbandar attacked the Raja Mahkota and seized the scales. Probably the Sultan would have attacked 'Abdu'llah, had not the Larut troubles occupied him. Still it was not till 1872 that those like the Eurasian Bacon to whom the improvident 'Abduilah had granted valuable concessions began to cast doubts on the validity of Ismail's Sultanate:—one of Sultan 'Ali's last letters to Lieutenant-Governor Anson, dated 18 March 1871, had asked that British subjects should be prevented from negotiating for farms in Perak with his brother-in-law, the Raja Muda. Now in 1872 Governor Ord sent Mr. Irving, Auditor-General of the Straits Settlements, along with an interpreter (Ibrahim son of Munshi 'Abduilah) lent by the Maharaja of Johor, to investigate on the spot who was the rightful ruler. On 25 April Mr. Irving met Raja Muda 'Abduilah in the presence of the Mantri (whom he styled the Raja of Larut) and of the Mantri's father-in-law, the Laksamana Muhammad Amin. The Eurasian, Mr. Bacon, made a speech asserting 'Abduilah's claims. When the Raja Muda had gone, the Mantri took Irving aside and told him in confidence that the election of Ismail was valid and could not now after a whole year be annulled. By far the wealthiest Perak chief, the Mantri was suspected of aiming at the throne and, as Swettenham noted, " to gain this end his best plan was to obtain a precedent for breaking the line of succession " and to support a ruler older than himself. Irving came to the conclusion that this untrustworthy trimmer the Mantri owed Larut to a corrupt bargain to support Ismail's claim to the Sultanate! And without meeting Ismail he stigmatised him as " an impracticable Malay of the old school," and advised the government to get that lover of European ways 'Abduilah installed as Sultan, which he was optimist enough to say " might be done very unobtrusively! " Unlike Ismail, 'Abduilah would not conspire with Raja Mahdi and Sayid Mashhor against Zia-u'd-din, the Kedah viceroy of Selangor. In short, 'Abduilah's election might restore harmony from Kedah to Johor! But on 9 May Wan Hasan the Temenggong Paduka Raja of Perak addressed a strong letter to

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the Governor, protesting that the election of Ismail, a just fair prince, could not be annulled after a reign of a year, that another Bendahara in the person of Raja 'Usman (a son of Sultan 'Ali) had been appointed and that 'Abdullah stood in the position of grandson to Sultan Ismail and had caused a lot of trouble to him and to Perak. The Temenggong added that besides himself there had been present at Ismail's election the two sons of Sultan 'Ali, the Mantri, the Orang Kaya Balai Maharaja Lela, the Sri Agar 'diraja. the Panglima Kinta, the Sri Maharaja Lela and the Sri Nara 'diraja as well as the sons of the Panglima Bukit Gantang and of the Sri Adika Raja who were acting in the place of their fathers. Only the Laksamana and Shahbandar were absent. All the chiefs present had talked of 'Abdullah the cuckold as having been ever useless to his country, and unanimously elected Ismail. Later the Laksamana and Shahbandar expressed their agreement. On 12 May the Mantri also wrote to the Governor that Ismail should remain Sultan. The Governor suggested summoning all the Perak chiefs finally to decide who should be their ruler. The chiefs rightly declared that the matter was settled and refused to come.

On 12 March 1873 Abdu'llah applied to the Lieutenant-Governor of Penang for a pass for arms for himself and his men as they were going to investigate the disturbances in Larut; the letter was not answered as the " Raja Muda alias Sultan " was merely fleeing from small creditors at Penang. On 28 April he claimed that he had at last been elected Sultan by many of the Perak chiefs including the Mantri, and he collected the revenues of Kuala Perak for his maintenance. He meddled in the Larut troubles pretending to help the British and be on the side of law and order but, according to Sultan Ismail, received payment for taking sides. In spite of 'Abdullah's efforts, the British government refused to recognize him, but it also declined to recognize Ismail. Ismail, though a Perak prince only on the distaff side, was no usurper but had been peaceably and properly elected. He was the rightful ruler and 'Abdullah only a pretender when Sir Harry Ord left the Straits and was succeeded by Sir Andrew Clarke, a change of Governors that happened to coincide with a change of policy on the part of the Colonial Office.

When in 1868 Sir Harry Ord had made a treaty with Kedah, the Colonial Office, while not disapproving of the treaty, laid down for the instruction of its administrators that " it would generally be undesirable that a Governor should enter into negotiations with native rulers, still less that he should conclude any agreement with them, except in pursuance of an object or policy considered and approved by Her Majesty's Government." These instructions are logical enough. But the " policy considered and approved by Her Majesty's Government " in the days of Sir Harry Ord was one of the strictest non-intervention. When, in July, 1872

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a number of Malacca traders sent a petition to the Government about the losses to which they were being put by the Selangor disturbances, they received the following reply:

" It is the policy of Her Majesty's Government not to interfere in the affairs of these countries except where it becomes necessary for the suppression of piracy or the punishment of aggression on our people or territories, and if traders, prompted by the prospect of large gains, choose to run the risk of placing their persons and property in the jeopardy that they are aware attends them in these countries under present circumstances, it is impossible for the Government to be answerable for their protection or that of their property."

This answer was formally approved by Lord Kimberley in December, 1872. The same rule of absolute neutrality was laid down once more for the Governor's guidance in a despatch dated 5 July, 1873. From that date, however, there are indications of a change of policy. Writing to Mr. Seymour Clarke on 5 August, 1873, the Colonial Office qualified its assertion of neutrality by stating that hitherto it had been the practice of the British Government not to interfere in the internal affairs of the Native States. In a despatch to the Governor, six weeks later, on 20 September, 1873, the policy of non-intervention was avowedly given up.

" Her Majesty's Government have, it need hardly be said, no desire to interfere in the internal affairs of the Malay States; but, looking to the long and intimate connection between them and the British Government. .. . Her Majesty's Government find it incumbent to employ such influence as they possess with the native princes to rescue, if possible, these fertile and productive countries from the ruin which must befall them if the present disorders continue unchecked.

" I have to request that you will carefully ascertain, as far as you are able, the actual condition of affairs in each State and that you will report to me whether there are in your opinion any steps which can properly be taken by the Colonial Government to promote the restoration of peace and order and to secure protection to trade and commerce with the native territories. I should wish you, especially, to consider whether it would be advisable to appoint a British officer to reside in any of the States. Such an appointment could, of course, only be made with the full consent of the native Government, and the expenses connected with it would have to be defrayed by the Government of the Straits Settlements."

It seems clear, therefore, that in August, 1873, the Secretary of State had been contemplating a change of policy and that in September, 1873, that change became accomplished. If the aban-

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donment of the old neutral attitude is to be ascribed to the representations of any Governor, it must have been due to the counsels of Sir Harry Ord. But as Sir Harry Ord was on the eve of retiring, the orders of the Colonial Office were not directed to him (though he was still in office) but to the Governor-designate, Sir Andrew Clarke, who happened to be in England when this all-important despatch was written. Not that the counsels of Governors could have been sufficient to bring about so great a change, had they not been aided by events. In 1873 Larut was being torn in two by rival secret societies; Perak proper was in a state of anarchy; Selangor was in the throes of civil war; even in Negri Sembilan there were serious disturbances. The whole Peninsula, as Sir Harry Ord pointed out, was in the hands of the lawless and the turbulent.

The policy of inaction that had been pursued between 1867 and 1873 must have been very galling to an administrator of the masterful temperament of Governor Ord. Local feeling was all in favour of intervention. In February, 1869, when Raja Yusuf laid his claim to the throne of Perak before the Straits authorities, the Colonial Secretary (Colonel Macpherson) openly expressed to the Governor his regret that it was not possible to take advantage of the opportunity and govern the country through a British nominee. In 1871 a committee (of which Major McNair was a member) definitely proposed that Residents should be sent to the Native States. In 1872, Sir George W. R. Campbell, when acting as Lieutenant-Governor of Penang, wrote in a similar strain:

" I speak with diffidence, being so new to this portion of the East, but I think it is worth consideration whether the appointment under the British Government of a British Resident or Political Agent for certain of the Malay States would not, as in India, have a markedly beneficial effect. Such Resident or Political Agent would need to be an officer of some position and standing and a man of good judgment and good personal manner, and he should, of course, have a thorough knowledge of the Malay language. ... In India, in many a native-ruled State, it is marvellous what work a single well-selected British officer has effected in such matters as roads, schools, and police—even within the compass of a few years."

These quotations make it plain that the introduction of the residential system into the Malay States was not the result of any sudden inspiration on the part of a new Governor. It was brought about by the course of events and by the advocacy of many Colonial officials—Sir Harry Ord, Colonels Anson and Macpherson, Major McNair and Sir George Campbell, among others. Sir Andrew Clarke's connection with it was fortuitous. Before leaving England he had been told what to do. He landed at Singapore in November, 1873, and signed the Pangkor Treaty on 20 January, 1874. But

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there were many possible ways of intervening in Perak affairs; and Sir Andrew Clarke must be judged by the way he elected to take—his reversal of Sir Harry Ord's policy towards the Mantri, his recognition of Raja Muda 'Abdu'llah as Sultan, his choice of Mr. Birch as Resident, and his guidance of Mr, Birch's line of action.

At the time of the Pangkor treaty Sir Andrew Clarke was probably ignorant that his predecessor had recognized the Mantri as the independent ruler of Larut. The papers on the subject were in Penang and were forwarded to him on 23 January, 1874, after the treaty had been signed. Sir Harry Ord's statement in the Singapore Council had not been explicit. Sir Harry had regarded the Larut troubles as a Penang matter and had been guided largely by the advice of Lieutenant-Governor Anson; Sir Andrew Clarke, as a newcomer, was influenced by Singapore counsellors, especially by Mr. Braddell who had never been to Larut and could have only an imperfect acquaintance with the facts. The new Governor had been instructed and advised to introduce the residential system, but had not been told how to do it. He seized the first chance that presented itself. Raja 'Abdu'llah, after his capture by the men of the Midge, had been released by Colonel Anson, the Lieutenant-Governor, and after borrowing $1,000 through the Shahbandar sailed to Singapore. He was a discredited man; and his rival, the Mantri, was the recognized ruler of Larut. Raja 'Abdu'llah was ready to agree to the residential system or indeed to any other system that would secure his advancement. He lived at the expense of Kim Ching, the Chinese Consul for Siam in whose favour he executed a bond making his host collector of the Larut revenues for ten years, provided Kim Ching could get the British to recognize his Sultanate. Mr. W. H. Read, a member of Council, took 'Abdu'llah to the Governor and induced him to write a letter dated 30 December 1873 asking for a Resident at his court. This was the opening that Sir Andrew had desired. He took up Raja 'Abdu'llah's cause, thinking—on the facts before him—that it would be a fair compromise if Raja ' Abdu'llah recognized the Mantri as Mantri, and the Mantri recognized the Raja as Sultan. It was not a fair compromise. The British Government had already recognized the Mantri as the independent ruler of Larut: and the Mantri demurred to being regarded as his rival's subordinate. Sir Andrew Clarke and Mr. Braddell, unaware of this recognition and in all good faith, regarded the Mantri as an obstinate and recalcitrant individual who was making unnecessary difficulties and putting forward indefensible pretensions. Mr. Braddell's journal of the Pangkor negotiations has to be read in the light of what was known to the Governor and to himself, and not in the light of the true facts. Thus when Mr. Braddell says that the Mantri was obliged to admit that he had no right to the title of tengku Mr. Braddell could not have been aware that the Perak use of the title was not the Singapore use, and that

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previous Mantris had been styled tengku long before the time of Ibrahim bin Ja'far: what the Mantri may have admitted was that he was not a tengku in its Singapore meaning, " the son of a prince.”

On 20 January 1874 Sir Andrew Clarke managed to persuade the Bendahara, the Temenggong and the Mantri to join with the Lower Perak Chiefs, the Sri Agar 'diraja, the Laksamana (cousin of 'Abdullah's mother) and his assistant the Raja Mahkota, and the Shahbandar, all of whom really favoured 'Abdullah on account of his mother, to sign the Pangkor treaty. Raja Muda 'Abdullah became Sultan and agreed to accept a British Resident " whose advice must be asked and acted upon on all questions other than those touching Malay religion and custom." He was the rightful heir and was intelligent and Europeanized, and to disallow his claim to the throne because he failed to attend a funeral seemed to the British " frivolous." In spite of the formal legality of his election Sultan Isma'il was deposed but was to be given a title and a pension of $1,000 a month. The Bendahara retained his office. The Mantri, in disgrace for his vacillating ineffective control of the Larut miners suffered the eclipse of all his hopes and was retained in his office only because Sir Andrew thought it would make for peace. He wanted a chair like the three Rajas present but was pushed down on the deck by Major McNair among the commoner chiefs. His nominee and friend had lost the Perak throne to Sultan 'Abdullah, the supporter of the Ghi Hins. The Mantri had to foot the bill to the Colony for Larut disturbances which 'Abdullah had fostered. And he who had aspired to a throne now became the salaried chief of a province subject to 'Abdullah. No wonder that he openly demurred. It is true that in the middle of 1873 he had written to 'Abdullah promising to vote for his election to the throne but that was in return for 'Abdullah's promise not to interfere in Larut; and three or four days after getting the Mantri's letter 'Abdullah had joined his Chinese enemies. All the chiefs objected to ceding more than the island of Pangkor to Great Britain but to please his creditor Kim Ching, 'Abdullah consented to cede a strip of the mainland too.

As soon as the new Sultan had returned well-pleased to Batak Rabit, the Laksamana and other chiefs held meetings of protest against the treaty and opined that the cession of the Dindings spelt the cession of Perak. In the eyes of the Laksamana the one good point about the treaty was that the Resident could not interfere with Malay custom and they could continue to capture and enslave as many aborigines as they liked. The Mantri went off and paid a lawyer a retaining fee of $12,000 to put his case before the British parliament, a procedure never adopted because 'Abdullah fearful for his throne vetoed it. Naturally Sultan Isma'il was furious. When Birch and Swettenham went to Blanja to induce him to surrender the regalia, he professed annoyance because

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they did not sit cross-legged in Oriental fashion, and gave them neither boatmen nor elephants for their return journey. He threatened to kill one Kulop Riau for having built a road and imported a few hundred Mendelings from Sumatra to open mines at Sungai Raya, because, he said, roads and mines attracted Europeans: he seized all the tin and imposed such heavy taxes that the mining population fell from more than two thousand to four hundred. Meanwhile 'Abdu'llah made haste to feather his nest before a Resident arrived: he got an advance of $13,000 from a Singapore Chinese, Cheng Ti, for the right to collect all taxes at the mouth of the Perak river and, as Mr. Braddell had warned him in July not to give such rights without the Governor's consent, he made out the agreement in the Shahbandar's name!

For the post of Resident of Perak was not filled at once. Captain Speedy, who had been in the Mantri's service and was well acquainted with local conditions, was appointed Assistant Resident. He was instructed to see to the immediate and complete disarmament of the Larut Chinese and the destruction of their stockades. In this work he was assisted by three Commissioners, one of whom (Mr. Pickering) had exceptional knowledge of Chinese affairs and amused Chinese coolies by his skill on the bag-pipes! These officers were able to report on 23 February that they had disarmed and destroyed every stockade in the country, that they had rescued 45 Chinese women who had been captured in the disturbances, and that they had induced the rival Chinese factions to agree to a definite partition of the mines. Peace was restored. The Chinese, tired with fighting, welcomed the restoration of law and order; but the Commissioners complained of their treatment at the hands of the Mantri who was dissatisfied with the subordinate position he had been made to accept.

The revenue of Larut in the palmy days of the Mantri had been about $18,000 a month, of which $15,000 had been collected in the form of royalty and export duty on tin. The revenue from tin in March, 1874, the first month of the new regime, amounted only to $1,338. The estimated expenditure for the Larut establishments (exclusive of buildings, public works, launches and other special expenditure) was put by Captain Speedy at $3,000 a month. By May the revenue had reached $3,217 with the promise of a still greater increase as soon as the removal of the overburden enabled the rich tin-deposits to be tapped in the deeper mines. By the end of the year the financial position of Larut was satisfactory. Much trouble, however, was caused through attempts made by Sultan 'Abdu'llah to levy revenue in the district otherwise than through the ordinary official channels. In March 1874, for example, he had sold to one 'Abdu'l-Karim the right to open mines, rice-fields and plantations on the right bank of the Krian river, a job that caused trouble for years. And there was fear of civil war. In August 'Abdu'llah, who always listened to every rumour, reported

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that ex-Sultan Isma'il and Raja Yusuf were preparing for hostilities, had in fact already started them with the son of the Sri Adika Raja at Kuala Tampan and Banggul Belimbing in Upper Perak. Isma'il hoped still that the Maharaja of Johor was serving his interests and he declared that he would always accept British advice and denied that he had conspired with the Raja of Tongkak.

In October 1874, Sir Andrew Clarke, having weighed the claims of Thomas Braddell, Major McNair and James Wheeler Woodford Birch chose the last to be first British Resident of Perak. Apparently Sultan 'Abdullah had asked for him. On December 30 the Governor reported to the Earl of Carnarvon, then Secretary of State, that " fully conscious of the heavy responsibility he had assumed in making this selection," he was convinced that his ability, " his tact and judgment in dealing with natives " his long experience as a settlement officer in Ceylon and his untiring physical energy and endurance made Mr. Birch thoroughly competent for a very difficult task. All appointments to the Malay States were then temporary so that the selection of officers lay with the Governor.