Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T16:44:20.085Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Reasons for British Intervention in Malaya: Review and Reconsideration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

E. Chew
Get access

Extract

The publication of Dr. C. D. Cowan's Nineteenth Century Malaya in 1961 was a significant landmark in the historiography of British intervention in Malaya. His view of the reasons for intervention has shown signs of becoming the newly orthodox view of a well-known crux in Malayan historical interpretation, being given prominence in a number of recent Malayan history books. After studying the London records, he came to the conclusion that “the decision to take some action in Malaya, and if necessary to intervene in the affairs of the states, was provoked not by conditions in the Peninsula, nor by any consideration of British economic interests there, but by fear of foreign intervention.” This conclusion has since been supported by another student of the Colonial Office side of things, Dr. W. D. MacIntyre, and seems to relegate previous interpretations to the limbo of historiographical curiosities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian History , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 1965 , pp. 81 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1965

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. (London, Oxford University Press, 1961). Hereafter, Cowan. This book was an expansion of a Ph.D. thesis on ‘The Origins of British Political Control in Malaya, 1867–1878’ (London University, 1956).Google Scholar

2. Cf. Winstedt, R. O., A History of Malaya, Revised (Singapore, Marican, 1962), 222Google Scholar; Kennedy, J., A History of Malaya (London, Macmillan, 1962), 156–157Google Scholar; Ryan, N.J., The Making of Modern Malaya (Kuala Lumpur, OUP, 1963), 111–120Google Scholar; Gullick, J.M., Malaya (London, Benn, 1963), 35Google Scholar; and Moorhead, F. J., A History of Malaya, Vol. II (Kuala Lumpur, Longmans, 1963), 165–168.Google Scholar

3. Cowan, , 168.Google Scholar

4. “Britain's Intervention in Malaya” in JSEAH. 11:3 (Singapore, 1961), 63–69. Hereafter, MacIntyre.Google Scholar

5. British Intervention in Malaya, 1867–1877 (Singapore, University of Malaya, 1960), 186Google Scholar. Hereafter, Parkinson. He regards Swettenham's view as ‘quite untenable’, since Malay States' disorders provided only the occasion for British intervention, and were not its cause.

6. Swettenham, , British Malaya (London, 1906), 132Google Scholar; The Real Malay (2nd ed., London, 1907), 4, 5, 7–9Google Scholar; Footprints in Malaya (London, 1942), 30–32.Google Scholar

7. “The Expansion of British Influence in the Malay Peninsula, 1867–1885,” (Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wisconsin, 1936), 44.Google Scholar

8. Ibid, 42.

9. Ibid. For Kimberley's attitude to the German threat in 1870, see MacIntyre, 55.

10. The Malay Peninsula (London, 1912), 126–127.Google Scholar

11. “A History of Malaya,” in JMBRAS, XIII:3 (Singapore, 1935), 233.Google Scholar

12. Parkinson, , 109–111.Google Scholar

13. Malaya and Its History (5th ed., London, Hutchinson, 1958), 64–65Google Scholar. See fn. 2 for Winstedt's third view of the matter.

14. Parkinson, , 107–111.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., III.

16. Ibid., 109. This has been noted by Prof: D.G.E. Hall in his review of Parkinson's book in JSEAH, II:1 (1961).Google Scholar

17. MacIntyre, , 63.Google Scholar

18. Ibid., 67.

19. Ibid.

20. Ord to Herbert (Private), 24/10/1872; Herbert's minute thereon (CO 273/60).

21. Minute by Kimberley (22/12/1872) on Ord to Kimberley, 6/11/1872 (CO 273/61).

22. See the minutes by Knatchbull-Hugessen (6/1/1873) and Kimberley (8/1) on Ord to Kimberley, 11/11/1872 (CO 273/61).

23. Wrongly stated by Campbell to be that for 1873. Campbell to Kimberley, 28/6/1873 (CO 273/74).

24. Campbell's Report, ibid.

25. Minute by Kimberley (7/7/1873) on Campbell's Report, ibid.

26. Ibid.; cf. Cowan, , 164Google Scholar, and MacIntyre, , 64.Google Scholar

27. Swettenham, F.A., Footprints in Malaya, 20Google Scholar. For an analysis of the civil war, see Gullick, J.M., A History of Selangor, 1742–1957 (Singapore, 1960), 56–70.Google Scholar

28. Lambert, Burgin & Fetch to Kimberley, 25/6/1873; and Herbert to Lambert & Co., 5/7/1873 (CO 273/74; Parl. Pap. C. 1111, 20).

29. See Knowles, M. I., thesis cit., 120–122Google Scholar. Cowan, , 167Google Scholar, fn. 74, discounts the importance of Read's telegraphic interests.

30. Who in fact used the pseudonym ‘An Old Resident’ when he wrote his memoirs, Play and Politics (London, 1901).Google Scholar

31. S. Clarke to Herbert, 18/7/1873 (CO 273/74; Parl. Pap., C. 1111, 27, 28).

32. Enclosed in letter cit. in fn. 31. Italics mine.

33. The Times, 12/7/1873, 12; cit. in Cowan, 168, fn. 76; MacIntyre, 65, fn. 77 Osborne had served in the Straits and wrote My Journal in Malayan Waters, published in London in 1857 (not in 1837 as Parkinson wrongly footnotes, 113, fn. 1).

34. Cowan, , 168.Google Scholar

35. Parkinson, , 109.Google Scholar

36. Minutes by Macdonald (19/7), Cox (20/7), and Herbert (21/7) on S. Clarke to Herbert, 18/7/1873 (CO 273/74).

37. Ibid., Knatchbull-Hugessen's minute (22/7).

38. Cf. MacIntyre, , 66Google Scholar, for a perceptive glance into Knatchbull-Hugessen's mind.

39. Cowan, , 173, 174Google Scholar, writes that only after detailed memoranda on the situation in Malaya had been prepared in mid-August did Kimberley realise this.

40. See Kimberley's comments on margin of draft letter, Herbert to Lambert & Co., 5/7/1873: “F.O. have nothing to do with Salangore if, as I think, it is not connected in any way with Siam” (CO 273/74).

41. Cowan, , 169.Google Scholar

42. Kimberley's minute (22/7) on S. Clarke to Herbert, 18/7/1873 (CO 273/74).

43. Ibid.

44. Herbert to S. Clarke, 5/8/1873 (CO 273/74; Parl. Pap. C. 1111, 28).

45. Memo, by Macdonald, 15/8/1873, and Kimberley/s detailed comments thereon, dated 31/8/1873, attached to the correspondence with S. Clarke.

46. See Coombs, D.The Gold Coast, Britain and the Netherlands, 1850–18174 (London. OUP, 1963), 127–131Google Scholar; and Drus, E. (Ed.), Kimberley's Journal, Camden Miscellany, XXI (London, 1958), 39–42.Google Scholar

47. Kimberley's note on draft letter, Herbert to S. Clarke, 5/8/1873.

48. The petition was not forwarded till 10 July because Ord's intention lo lay it personally before Kimberley was frustrated by the postponement of Ord's leave. Ord to Kimberley, No. 188 of 10/7/1873 (CO 273/07; Parl. Pap., C. 1111, 28–32).

49. Ibid., concluding paragraph.

50. Minute by Cox (28/8) on Ord to Kimberiey, 10/7/1873, (CO 273/07). Italics mine.

51. Ibid., original emphasis.

52. Minute by Herbert (29/8), ibid.

53. Minute by Kimberley (31/8/1873) on Orel to Kimberley, 10/7/1873, ibid.

54. Kimberley to Ord, 23/9/1873 (CO 273/67).

55. Cowan, , 169.Google Scholar

56. See above, fn. 6.

57. Kimberley to Gladstone, 10/9/1873 (Gladstone Papers, Add. MSS. 44225/103), cit. by Cowan, 169, and MacIntyre, 67.

58. Ibid., cit. by MacIntyre, loc. cit.

59. Kimberley to Clarke, 20/9/1873 (Pail. Pap. C. 1111, 38, 39).

60. Kimberley to Clarke, No. 259 of 29/11/1873., (CO 273/74).

61. There seems to be a certain ambivalence in Cowan's view (cf.169, 175, 264, 268). He seems to assign prime significance to this factor, and then to disclaim that it had this priority among the other factors.

62. Minute by Cox. 6/4/1874 (CO 273/75).