The treaty of Pangkor provides "that the Resident's advice must be asked and acted upon (in Perak) on all questions other than those relating to Malay religion and custom, and that the collection and control of all revenue and the general administration of the country must be regulated under the advice of these Residents." It was on the same terms that Residents were appointed at Selangor and Sungei Ujong.
APPENDIX B
Slavery in the Malay States.
Langat, 30th June, 1875.
Sir—When on board the Colonial steamer Pluto last week, accompanying
His Excellency the Governor in a tour to some of the native States, His
Excellency made inquiry of me with regard to the present state of
debt-slavery in the Peninsula.
This was a subject so large and important as hardly to admit of thorough explanation in a conversation; I therefore asked His Excellency's leave to report upon it.
I now beg to give you a detailed account of the circumstances of debt-slavery as known to me personally.
In treating the question under its present condition—I mean under Malay rule—it is necessary to consider the all-but slavery of the debtors and the difficulty of making any arrangement between debtor and creditor which while it frees the one will satisfy the other, and still be in keeping with the "adat Malayu," as interpreted in these States.
The relative positions of debtor and creditor in the Western States, more especially in Perak, involve evils which are, I believe, quite unknown to Europeans, even those living so near as Singapore.
The evils to which I refer have hitherto been regarded as unavoidable, and a part of the ordinary relations between Rajahs and subjects.