Page 244 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

Clarke, R.E., then Governor of the Straits Settle-
ments, concluded the Pangkor Treaty with the Perak
Chiefs in 1874 and introduced a new departure in
the relations between the British Government and
the Malay States, he selected Mr. Birch for the
difficult post of adviser to the Sultan of Perak.
Mr. Birch assumed his duties in the end of 1874,
and very soon found that, looking to the people
with whom he had to deal and his own power-
lessness to enforce an order, he had undertaken a
well-nigh impossible task. At that time the Malay
Peninsula was a terra incognita to white men, and
the characteristics, customs, peculiarities and pre-
judices of the Malay had yet to be learnt.
Of all the States in the Peninsula Perak was
probably the least well suited for the schooling of a
Resident and the initiation' of the interesting but
dangerous experiment of Government by the advice
of a British officer.
It had a large Malay population, people whose
ancestors had for generations belonged to the place
and who were saturated with ancient customs, pre-
and that had to be
judices, superstitions learned,
and with many of which it was difficult to sym-
It had an unusual number of
pathise. Rajas and
Chiefs, each with some kind of privilege or vested
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