From H.B.M.'s Resident, Perak, to Colonial Secretary, Straits
Settlements Residency, Kwala Kansa, December 14, 1878.
Sir--In reference to your letter of the 28th June last, directing, by
command of His Excellency the Governor, my particular attention to the
plan adopted in Selangor for the extinction of the claims against
slave-debtors, by a valuation of their services to their creditors
according to a fixed scale, and directing me to consider to His
Excellency with a view to its being afterward submitted for the
consideration of the Council of State:
1. I have the honor to state in reply that a copy of that letter and
its inclosure was supplied to the Assistant Resident of Perak, and its
contents communicated to the other magistrates, with instructions on
all occasions in which such cases should be brought before them, to
endeavor, with the consent of the creditors, to come to a settlement on
such a basis.
2. The Toh Puan Halimah, daughter of the exiled Laxamana of Perak, and
chief wife of the banished Mentri of the State, had invested most of
her private money in advances of this description, which, up to the
time of British interference, was the favorite form of security, and
she is now the largest claimant in the country for the repayment of her
money. Another, Wan Teh Sapiah, has also claims of a like nature on
several families, and both these ladies willingly undertook to accept
of liquidation by such an arrangement.
3. In the former case it has, I am sorry to say, fallen through, from
the impossibility of inducing the debtors to work regularly, and from
very many of them, who are living in entire freedom in different parts
of the country, declining to come into the arrangement, though
acknowledging their debts.
4. In many other cases the creditors from the first put forward the
certainty of the failure of such a system from the above-mentioned
cause; others have objected that they had no regular employment in
which to place their debtors; others, that they are utterly ruined by
the events of recent years, and that they would accede to the proposal
if fairly carried out on the other part, provided the Government would
advance money as the native Rajahs did to enable them to open mines or
gardens in which they could employ their debtors; nearly all have
declared themselves willing, and even anxious, to accept a just amount
in payment of their debts, several suggesting that the State might
conveniently undertake to do this, employing the labor in public works
until the debtor should be free.
5. I cannot undertake to say what may have been the practice in former
times, as to the treatment, in Perak, of this class of persons; but no
case of cruelty or any great hardship has been brought to my notice
since I came into the country. By far the larger number of the
slave-debtors live with their families apart and often at great
distances from their masters, enjoying all the fruits of their labor,
rendering occasional assistance to them when called upon to do so,
which, in the majority of cases, is of rare occurrence.
6. The circumstances of Perak would probably be found to differ from
those of Selangor, which I understand has a much smaller population;
was governed by an enlightened ruler under the advice of British
Residents, who succeeded in introducing the present regulation
immediately after the conquest of the district.
7. To introduce such a measure into Perak at the present time would, in
my opinion, have a very disturbing effect, and although I do not think
that it would lead to any extensive or organized armed resistance, I am
sure that it would so shake the confidence which has arisen between the
European officers and principal people that years would be required to
restore it.
8. I confess that I am not able to devote all my sympathy to the weaker
class in this question. I concur with the principal natives that the
introduction of a measure which formed no part of the original contract
would practically amount to a confiscation of their property, the value
of the labor of this class of persons being scarcely more than nominal;
and I adhere to the opinion that the just and politic course is, as has
been done, to prohibit any extension or renewal of the practice either
of slave indebtedness or slavery; to secure good treatment for the
servile classes under penalty of enforced manumission; to reduce claims
when they come before the magistrates to the minimum which justice to
the creditor will permit; to await the increased means of freeing
themselves which must develop for the poorer classes upon the extensive
introduction of European capital into agricultural industries; and,
finally, to purchase at a rate which, in consequence of the notorious
discouragement with which every case is treated by the European
officers and the courts, and the pressure of other influences, will, in
time, be much diminished from what would probably be considered a fair
equivalent. I have, etc.,
(Signed) Hugh Low, Resident.
The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements,
Singapore.