122 environment.

122 Several indications of this are available from official reports In Ulu Pahang in 1898, a drought wiped out the padi crop,

brought about widespread semi-starvation and led the DO to warn that the failure of the new crop would bring many other peasants 'face to face with actual starvation' . MR Ulu Pahang, July and August 1898, Phg .GG 1898, p. 344. In Kuala Kangsar a crop failure in 1897 resulted in many peasants being 'sorely put ... even to obtain regular food of the poorest description' AR Lands, Mines and Surveys FMS 1898,

CHAPTER III

THE COMING OF RUBBER AND THE END OF UNCERTAINTY, 1905-12

Political Consolidation and Economic Growth

THE period 1905-1912 appears on first sight an insignificant one in

the political history of the Malay Peninsula. Broadly, it was a

period of further consolidation for the colonial regime after the

take-over of Perak in 1874; an unobtrusive period. But it was alio

one which tied more firmly the Malay Peninsula to the British imperial yoke. During the early period the British administration had

encountered only marginal resistance to its efforts to assert its authority over the country and fewer difficulties than had been expected had arisen over the actual imposition of colonial rule, tore contentious was the question of what form the colonial hegemony was to assume, and in the British efforts to find the answers emerged the

different constitutional entities in the Peninsula. The Straits

Settlements was one early answer, and here the administration had every reason to be satisfied, for the Settlements had prospered. The Malay States of Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Pahang initia.ly, under the administration of the Residents and then under the

federation, was a later creation, and here too, the political

sketching had been brilliant. In the south, in Johore, the Sultat

and the British were manoeuvring themselves into a mutually beneficial

position which both parties were eager not to upset. It was only in

the north that the British faced a trickier situation. There was a tangle of Siamese claims in the Malay states of Kedah, Kelantan aid Trengganu to unravel and the slight but perceptible shadow of other

European powers in the area to contend with. But even here, despite

the cautious approach, there was little doubt of the impending ra.sing

of the British flag; it was only a matter of time.

WHilst the individual regularization of the colonial position in these four entities - the already functioning Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States and Johore and the nascent Unfederated Malay States - comprised one set of material for the

British political draughtsman, the ranking of these entities in tie ultimate colony of a unitary British Malaya and, by implication, of the authorities controlling them, was another. The problem was

especially complicated for the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States , where powerful personalities in each area schemed for

the box seat in the new setting. In the latter area the initial

excitement of the political federation in 1895 had been followed by a quieter period during which the reins of authority were transferred

from the individual Residents and state administrations to the Resident-General and the federal offices, and most of the key

functions of administration were soon being directed from Kuala 1

Lumpur. This process of political centralization had been master­

minded by Frank Swettenham, Resident-General from 1895 to 1900, who, through sheer force of personality and frequent reference to his extraordinary record of experience, was able to overshadow the Governor of the Straits Settlements to whom he was theoretically a

subordinate. In 1901, Swettenham became Governor but he continued

to crack the whip over the Malay States from the stage which he had

previously decried as inadequate. Swettenham, however, departed in

1903 and his exit signalled the start of a struggle between Taylor, the new Resident-General and John Anderson, the new Governor, with the former bent on recapturing the former independence that the Resident-General had enjoyed in the Malay States, and the latter

intent on preventing this and on consolidating his own authority. By 1910, though the battle was by no means over, it was clear from

the establishment of the Federal Council with the Governor as its President, and the passing of the Chief Secretary Enactment which redefined and reduced the Resident-General's position, that the early honours had gone to the Governor .

The power struggle, however, did not interfere with the

economic development of the Malay States. This was fortunate for the

colonial administration because the period was in many ways crucial in shaping the economy. The past thirty years had seen the growth of the mining, plantation and urban enclaves, and the development of

a commercial economy. But the transition from a traditional self-

subsisting economy to a relatively modern one was still far from

1 The transfer of authority can be seen in the decline of state

legislation and the corresponding increase in federal

legislation. From 1900 to 1909 an average of 18 enactments was passed by the State Councils annually. From 1910 to 1925 an average of about one a year was passed. FCP Appendix 37 of 13 December 1926, C633.

being accomplished, and it was only over these next few years that some vital ingredients were added which made the change-over decisive and irreversible, and gave the colonial economy its characteristic structure which was to persist for the next half century.

The first of these ingredients was population. A prime concern of the administration had been the stimulation of the growth of the population of the Malay States . The 1891 and 1901 censuses had borne evidence of the early success and the 1911 census found a

continuation of this . In 1911 there was a total population of

1,036,999, an increase of 358,404 or 52.82 per cent since the census of 1901. All the main races recorded increases, but by far the most gratifying one, in the administration's view, was that of the Indian population which tripled in the ten years between 1901 and 1911. The earlier increases had been in the Chinese and Malay populations but the British had long wanted an Indian influx to supply the states with the labour necessary to turn it into an agricultural colony. This was finally realised. Whilst the linear growth of population had been achieved early, the administration had not been able to

gauge whether the growth was a transient or permanent one. Some

officials had feared that the population was of an unstable nature

which could endanger British plans of long-term development. This

uneasiness was, however, dispelled by various demographic

developments during this period. The 1911 census confirmed that the Federated Malay States was a stable domicile for many people and

found that there was an increasing tendency to permanent settlement. Despite the remarkable increase in immigrants from the islands of the Archipelago, fully 81 per cent of the 420,840 Malays, for example,

was classified as 'indigenous'. Of the Chinese population which had

previously been regarded as a transient one, the census found in the increase in the number of females, in the more balanced structure of the age group and in the increase in the number of families, evidence of a small but growing number of permanent settlers. This feature of an increasingly stable non-Malay population was to become more pronounced much later on, but its modest appearance at this time provides a significant portent.^

2 For further figures of the racial composition of the population,

W h il e t h e s e d e m o g r a p h i c d e v e l o p m e n t s w e r e u n f o l d i n g , i m p o r t a n t s t r u c t u r a l c h a n g e s w e r e t a k i n g p l a c e i n t h e t i n i n d u s t r y ,

t h e m a j o r p r o p o f t h e eco n o my . F o r many y e a r s t h e i n d u s t r y had b e en

d o m i n a t e d by C h i n e s e m i n e r s who p o s s e s s e d t h e l a b o u r r e s o u r c e s and f i n a n c i a l o r g a n i z a t i o n t o o p e r a t e s u c c e s s f u l l y i n t h e p i o n e e r

c o n d i t i o n s . By t h e b e g i n n i n g o f t h e t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y , h o w e v e r , t h e

a d v a n t a g e s w h i c h ha d g i v e n t h e C h i n e s e a commanding e dg e o v e r t h e i r

E u r o p e a n c o u n t e r p a r t s became l e s s m a r k e d . L a b o u r became s c a r c e r and

more e x p e n s i v e , p a r t l y b e c a u s e o f t h e g r e a t e r m o b i l i t y o f t h e l a b o u r f o r c e and p a r t l y b e c a u s e o f c o m p e t i t i o n f r om t h e p l a n t a t i o n r u b b e r i n d u s t r y . At t h e same t i m e t h e r i c h s u r f a c e d e p o s i t s w h i c h s u i t e d t h e C h i n e s e l a b o u r - i n t e n s i v e m i n i n g m e t h o d s , b e g a n t o p e t e r o u t and new g o v e r n m e n t f i s c a l and m i n i n g p o l i c i e s a d v e r s e l y a f f e c t e d t h e 3 C h i n e s e m i n e r s . T h e s e c h a n g i n g c o n d i t i o n s c o i n c i d e d w i t h and l e n t t h e m s e l v e s t o t h e l a r g e - s c a l e i n f l u x o f w e s t e r n m i n i n g e n t e r p r i s e w h i c h , b e c a u s e o f i t s s u p e r i o r t e c h n o l o g y and c a p i t a l i z a t i o n , soon b e g a n t o c o n t r i b u t e a s u b s t a n t i a l and g r o w i n g s h a r e t o t h e t i n p r o d u c t i o n . T h e r e f o r e , w h e r e a s a d e c a d e e a r l i e r W e s t e r n m i n e r s p r o d u c e d a n e g l i g i b l e amount o f t i n , i n 1910 t h e y a c c o u n t e d f o r 23 p e r c e n t o f t h e 4 3 , 1 4 9 t o n s p r o d u c e d i n t h e F e d e r a t e d Malay S t a t e s . But t h e g r o w t h o f w e s t e r n m i n i n g e n t e r p r i s e d i d n o t h a v e a s i g n i f i c a n t i m p a c t on o v e r a l l t i n p r o d u c t i o n . I t h a s b e e n m e n t i o n e d t h a t t h e t i n i n d u s t r y had made a s t r o n g r e c o v e r y f r o m t h e d e p r e s s i o n c o n d i t i o n s o f t h e 1.890s and ha d r e a c h e d a r e c o r d p r o d u c t i o n i n 1905 when 5 0 , 9 9 2 t o n s w e r e e x p o r t e d . T h i s p r o v e d t o be i t s z e n i t h f o r a l o n g t i m e , and i n f a c t , p r o d u c t i o n d e c l i n e d m a r g i n a l l y d u r i n g t h e 4 p e r i o d . T h i s d i s a p p o i n t i n g p e r f o r m a n c e c o n f i r m e d t h e g e n e r a l

s u s p i c i o n t h a t t h e Malay S t a t e s was n o t one v a s t t i n f i e l d a f t e r a l l . I n t h e e a r l y e u p h o r i c d a y s , some o f f i c e r s ha d b e e n o p t i m i s t i c t h a t t h e r e w e r e many new f i e l d s w h i c h a w a i t e d d i s c o v e r y b u t t h e r e c e n t

o p e n i n g up o f t h e c o u n t r y had shown them t o be wrong . I n S e l a n g o r

an d p a r t i c u l a r l y i n N e g r i S e m b i l a n , no new i m p o r t a n t t i n f i n d s r e p l a c e d t h e o l d d e p l e t e d f i e l d s , a n d p r o d u c t i o n sl ump e d n o t i c e a b l y . 3 A d i s c u s s i o n o f t h e c a u s e s o f d e c l i n e i n C h i n e s e m i n i n g a c t i v i t y and t h e g r o w t h o f W e s t e r n m i n i n g a c t i v i t y c a n be f ou n d i n Wong L i n Ken, M a l a y a n T i n I n d u s t r y , p p . 2 1 6 - 2 2 7 . 4 See A p p e n d i x 3 . 1 .