CHAPTER I - GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL | About Perak

[1]

" The truth, God only knows.” Yaami.

TWENTY years ago, it is probable there were not half a dozen Europeans who knew where Perak was or anything at all about it. In those years, however, the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society has published several maps of the Malay Peninsula, and on those maps Perak occupies a position that, if not immovable, is pretty generally North of Singapore, Malacca, and Selangor, and South of Siam, Kedah, and Province Wellesley. 

That is a sufficiently precise description for people in the Straits, without going into degrees of latitude and longitude; but, to enquirers west of Suez, it is safer to say, that, between India and China, there are two seas joined by a narrow stretch of water called the Straits of Malacca, and on the mainland which borders the northern side of those Straits is Perak. That you will find is a definition in all respects sufficient to satisfy geographical entnusiasm or any further interest in Perak. That is, generally speaking, --- there possibly will be exceptions but it is well to remember that to be 

GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL | About Perak

[2]

encyclopaedic in giving information is inevitably to become a bore. Speaking of Perak, it will not help the enquirer to tell him it is near Penang, because Penang is not so well known as Perak, except to a few people of sixty years old and upwards. Early in the seventies, Sir Arthur Birch re-discovered Penang and made it known to his friends, but his interest in the Island was but fleeting, and it takes a good deal to make a lasting impression on the minds of the English people. Since that time there has been a little war in Perak, but nothing of special importance has taken place in Penang.

Do not either pin your faith on the magic of the Colony's name. Some years ago I was riding to a meet of hounds in the North of England, and was joined on the road by a man of years, a hard rider and good judge of horses. and this is what passed : -

" Let me see, you have to do with some Colony have you not."

“ Yes. the Straits Settlements."

" That is Canada is it not ?"

" No, it is not Canada."

" I thought Straits Settlements was another name for Canada, surely that is so ? "

" No."

" Do you use horses ? "

" Yes."

" What do they eat ? "

" Grass."

GEOGRAPHICAL AND HIST0RICAL | About Perak

[3]

" Have you no hay ? "

" No."

" Well, have you any silos there, because I am interested in silos ? "

" No, none.''

" Could I do anything in the way of introducing silos ? "

" I fear not."

" Ah ! then I'm not interested in the place," and my friend quickened his pace and left me. He is a wealthy man and a great authority --- on silos,

This little incident is typical, but it is British not to know, and also British not to wish to know. Perhaps it is as well ; too many questions are often trying.

Once upon a time, before the Malays were converted to the Faith of Islam, Perak was called Kastan Zorian, that was several hundred years ago (in 1276 to be precise) ; and it "has had nineteen Muhammadan Sultans since, of whom the last is His Highness Sultan Idris Mershedil Aathim Shah, K.C.M.G., a highlv educated, kindly, and polished gentleman, who has travelled in Europe and profited by what he has seen. Duing the longer and shorter reigns of his predecessors there is little to chronicle until 1826, when the Honourable East India Company made a Treaty with Siam,by which that kingdom promised to cease from harassing the State of Perak. In the same year, the Company (then established) in the Straits of 

GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL | About Perak

[4]

Malacca made a Treaty with the Sultan of Perak by which the Islands of Pangkor and the Dindings (on the coast of Perak) were ceded to the Company, in order that the latter might be able to protect vessels passing through the Straits of Malacca from the pirates who infested the coasts of Perak and the other Malay States.

In 1867, the Indian Government, which by this time, represented the old Company, gave up its Straits Possessions, and the then Presidency became the Colony of the Straits Settlements. Prior and subsequent to this date, nearly all the western States of the Peninsula had been the scene of severe intestine struggles and these culminated, in Perak, in a fierce faction fight between rival tribes of Chinese who had been attracted to the State, or rather to one of its Provinces. Larut, by the wealth of its tin deposits. Three thousand persons are said to have been killed on the first day of the struggle. 

 The Malay authority was too weak to deal with the Chinese, the state of internal affairs was complicated by rival claims to the Sultanship, and meanwhile the necessities of the combatants drove them to seek supplies in the Straits of Malacca, where almost daily acts of piracy threatened to destroy the carrying trade in native craft. Even steamers were attacked, the boats of H. M.'s ships were fired on, isolated British Police Stations attacked, and finally the Penang house of the Chief of the Province of Larut was blown up. The reiterated determination of H. M.'s Government not to interfere in the affairs of the Malay States broke down under these somewhat trying circumstances, and with these events there was suffered to lapse the celebrated warning to the Straits merchants that ;–  if 

GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL | About Perak

[5]

persons, knowing the risks they ran, owing to the disturbed state of these countries, choose to hazard their lives and properties for the sake of the large profits which accompany successful trading, they must not expect the British Government to be answerable if their speculation proves unsuccessful."

The story of British interference in Perak, and subsequently in the other Malay States, is one of more than passing interest and has yet to be written, but here it insufficient to say that while the circumstances alone made that interference the duty of the paramount power, Raja Abdullah, who was believed to be the rightful claimant to the throne of Perak, besought the assistance of the Governor of the Straits to introduce order into Perak, to control the Chinese, and to send him an experienced Officer to aid him in properly administering the Government of the Country 

All these requests were complied with by Governor Sir Andrew Clarke, R. E., who, by the Perak Engagement of January, 20th 1874, acknowledged Abdullah as Sultan of Perak. That Treaty also provided for the appointment of a British Resident and determined the nature of the authority he should exercise ; it settled two boundary questions between the Colony and Perak and secured peace between the contending factions of Chinese. To those who knew the Straits of Malacca in 1872-73, or who choose to look up the old files of the local journals, it will probably seem a notable achievement that no piracy has ever taken place in these waters since the British Government abandoned the policy of inaction for the policy of protection. 

Matters did not progress smoothly in Perak after the Pangkor 

GEOGRAPHICAL AND HIST0RICAL | About Perak

[6]

Engagement. Mistakes were made, there was regrettable delay in the sending of a Resident to Perak and the difficulties of the problem were not understood, as indeed it was hardly likely they would be. 

The Colonial Secretary of the Colony, Mr. J. W. W. Birch, was appointed Resident of Perak, with Captain Speedy as his assistant in Larut, and a small body of undisciplined Sikhs was distributed between them as a guard. 

In the ten months that Mr. Birch performed the duties of British Resident in Perak, he saw so much of the country and the people and took up so many important questions that his successors have always been filled with admiration for his fearless energy and ability. Of his kindness to the Malays there are still many who will speak, and his assassination at Paser Sala [Pasir Salak] on the 2nd November, 1875, was a political murder in which there was no semblance of personal feeling. The loss of his valued life was an infinite gain to Perak, for the considerable Military expedition which followed, and the subsequent short occupation of the State by British Troops did more to secure permanent tranquillity than ten or fifteen years of  " advice " by a British Resident could have done without it. 

The expedition was entirely successful and the work was done quickly and thoroughly ; as might be expected, with General Sir F. Colborne and Brigadier General J. Ross in command of the Troops. Captains Buller and Stirling with the Naval Brigade and Colonel Dunlop, R.A., as Civil Commissioner with the Forces, Moreover, and 

GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL | About Perak

[7]

this does not always happen in the east, every man concerned directly and most of those concerned indirectly in the murder of the Resident was either arrested and punished, killed, or died in the jungle. The entire cost of this expedition was recovered from Perak. 

A Commission consisting of Mr. (now Sir G.) Philippo and the late Mr. C. B. Plunket collected evidence concerning the complicity of Sultan Abdullah, Ex-Sultan Ismail and other chiefs, and these were all banished from the State, the Raja Muda Jusuf succeeding first as Regent and later as Sultan of Perak. 

With this brief record of events ends the first chapter in the history of British Protection, and it will be interesting to examine a little more carefully the means by which, from such an apparently unfavourable beginning, the Residential seedling has developed into the flourishing plant of to-day.