To keep such people in order a just and impartial rule, in which both rulers and ruled alike do their portion of work, is required. Like all Easterns they need a government simply formed and tutored by experience gained in the country itself, experienced in the manners and methods of the people, devoted to their welfare and interests, an indigenous product of the country which it governs, untroubled by agents or officials sent from outside, who, partly owing to want of reciprocal feeling and sympathy with the people, partly through ignorance, and partly through adherence to impracticable laws are liable to make such fatal mistakes in their dealings with Easterns which naturally leads to discontent, and even to rebellion.
The success this policy has met with is borne out by the testimony of Sir W. Gifford Palgrave, the Arabian scholar and traveller, and Mr. Alleyne Ireland, as well as by that of many others whom we have already quoted.
The former, when British Minister at Bangkok, visited Sarawak in 1882, and subsequently wrote to the Rajah:—
It is a pleasure to me to think that I shall be able to bear personal witness, when in England, to the success of your administration, which by its justice, firmness and prudence seems to me to work up better towards that almost utopian climax of "the greatest happiness to the greatest numbers" than any Eastern government (white or brown) that I have yet seen.
Mr. Alleyne Ireland was sent out from the United States by the University of Chicago to study British and other Tropical Colonies and to report thereon. A preliminary report was published in 1905, under the title of The Far Eastern Tropics. After commenting severely on the mistaken methods adopted in the Philippines by the U.S.A., he turned to Sarawak, where a method in all points the reverse had been steadily pursued under the two Rajahs. This is what he says:—
For the last two months (written in January 1903) I have been in Sarawak, travelling up and down the coast, and into the interior, and working in Kuching, the capital. At the end of it, I find myself unable to express the high opinion I have formed of the administration of the country without a fear that I shall lay myself open to the charge of exaggeration. With such knowledge of administrative systems in the tropics as may be gained by actual observation in almost every part of the British Empire, except the African Colonies, I can say that in no country which I have ever visited are there to be observed so many signs of a wide and generous rule, such abundant indications of good government as are to be seen on every hand in Sarawak.
And again:—
The impression of the country which I carry away with me is that of a land full of contentment and prosperity, a land in which neither the native nor the white man has pushed his views of life to the logical conclusion, but where each has been willing to yield to the other something of his extreme convictions. There has been here a tacit understanding on both sides that those qualities which alone can insure the permanence of good government in the State are to be found in the White Man and not in the Native; and the final control remains therefore in European hands, although every opportunity is taken of consulting the natives and of benefiting by their intimate knowledge of the country and its people.
The wise and essential policy of granting the natives through their chiefs a part in the administration of the Government and in its deliberations, and in the selection of these chiefs of regarding the voice of the people, has always been maintained. Sympathy between the ruled and the rulers has been the guiding feature of the Rajah's policy, and this has led to the singular smoothness with which the wheels of the Government run. It must always exist, as it has ever existed, and still exists. That the country belongs to the natives must never be forgotten, and the people on their part will never forget that they owe their independence solely through the single-hearted endeavours of their white Rajahs on their behalf.
"The real strength of the Government," writes the Rajah, "lies in the native element, and depends upon it, though many Europeans may hold different views, especially those with a limited experience of the East. The unbiased native opinion, Malay and Dayak, concerning matters relating to the country is simply invaluable."