MALAY MEMBERS OF SUPREME COUNCIL.
From left to right—The Datu Hakim (Haji Muhammad Ali), The Datu Bandar (Muhammad Kasim), The Datu Imaum (Haji Muhammad Rais), and Inchi Muhammad Zin.
Sarawak, for nearly fifty years, without protection, assistance, or encouragement of any kind, had gone on her way progressing slowly but surely, and maintaining her independence in spite of many reverses and misfortunes; and, long before the protection was granted, had developed into a prosperous State with a bright future before her. For her advancement and security, that protection which the late Rajah had so ardently desired and so sorely needed, time has shown was not really necessary. Could he have foreseen this in the days of his country's adversity, he might have spared himself many rebuffs from those who should have upheld him in his noble work, but who chose either to flout or to obstruct it. He was impressed with the conviction, not unreasonably entertained, that the Dutch cast a lickerish eye upon Sarawak, and he was afraid that, failing England, Sarawak would have to fall back on the Netherlands Government for help in the event of an insuperable reverse or of bankruptcy. That would lead to the little State being annexed to the Dutch possessions in the island; and he was by no means confident that the British Government would not allow this to take place. But since that period, in the desire for colonial extension, which has grown in foreign nations, appeared another danger to the independence of the State, a danger which, if it arose, it would have been impossible for its Ruler to have averted unless protected, and state-craft offers many methods, and has shown many examples of a strong power starting a quarrel with one that is weak, that has led to annexation. Consequently, for Sarawak protection was needed; and for England it seemed to be imperative, to prevent a country in such a commanding position and with so many conveniences falling into the hands of a foreign power.[[346]]
On August 15, 1889, the fiftieth anniversary of the landing of Sir James Brooke, in a speech the Rajah said:—
That he had had the honour, and perhaps the misfortune, to figure in the Government through the greater portion of that time. No country could traverse so long a period without great changes taking place in her for better or for worse. A half century is long enough to make or to break any nation or government, any man or people. Fortunately, we are all here to witness the fact that Sarawak has weathered the storms and escaped the breakers that were deemed likely to wreck her. She rode safely to port, or, to change the metaphor, she stood now, he believed, upon a surer and more solid basis than ever before. He would not say that this country had advanced with rapidity, though many might entertain a contrary opinion, but we knew that we have been left to work out the problem of government and development of commerce for ourselves, and, if he might say so, to paddle our own canoe, with but scant assistance from without. It was just that slow and gradual development—first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear—the law of all healthy growth—which had taught us how to govern this country with its many dusky races. There is give and take in all departments of life, and the native inhabitants had taught us, and we had taught them, till both ourselves and they had acquired, and he might say, been saturated with perfect mutual confidence, the one with the other. This perfect mutual confidence was the true basis on which the prosperity and security of the State reposed, and none more solid could be conceived; none of which all present had a greater right to be proud. Nothing, he would venture to say, had been rushed or pushed forward with inordinate precipitation, so as to cause reaction or to injure the prospects of the future.
THE KUCHING POLICE.
The total police of the State numbers about 225 men; of which about 80 are Sikhs and Sepoys, the rest being Malays.
Writing on the subject of Sarawak for the Geographical Society of Australia, the French writer and explorer, Edmond Cotteau, who visited Sarawak in 1884, says:—
In reality thirty Englishmen, no more, govern and administer economically the country, and that with only a few hundred native soldiers and policemen, and almost without written laws. A handful of men of a strange race is blindly obeyed by 300,000 Asiatics! To what must we attribute this great result if not to the justice and the extreme simplicity of the Government? What better example could be followed in the future when the great island of New Guinea becomes a dependency of some European Power?
The Rajah was created a G.C.M.G. at the time that protection was granted.
In October, 1889, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, issued instructions that her Majesty's ships were in future to salute the Rajah with twenty-one guns.