§ GENERAL SIR GEORGE BALFOURasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, If not inconvenient to the public interests, to lay upon the Table of the House the whole of the Correspondence relating to the late important arrangements made by Colonel Sir Andrew Clarke, Governor of the Straits of Malacca, by which the Government of the Straits becomes the controlling authority over the Chinese and Malay population at Perak; what measures the Colonial Office have taken to supply efficient assistants to the Governor of the Straits by selecting officers well acquainted with the Malay language, and probably procurable in India from amongst the officers of the Indian Army who have been stationed in the Straits settlements; and, whether, having regard to the large Chinese population in the Malay Peninsula, and yearly on the increase by emigrants from China, the Foreign Office could, on the application of the Colonial Office, supply some officers from the China Consular service acquainted with the Chinese language for employment under the Governor of the Straits?
§ MR. J. LOWTHERSir, the Government are awaiting further information before arriving at any decision with respect to Sir Andrew Clarke's proposals for the appointment of a British Resident in Perak, and pending their confirmation by this Government his arrangements are altogether provisional. As soon as the Correspondence is sufficiently complete it will be laid before Parliament. If there should be any deficiency in the Straits Settlements of officers speaking Malay or Chinese, the sources indicated by the hon. Member—officers of the Indian Army who have been stationed in the Straits Settlements and officers of the China Consular Service—can be resorted to. The present system, however, of nomination and competitive examination, by which cadets are appointed in this country, whose confirmation as permanent officers of the Colonial Government depends upon their passing a subsequent examination in a native language, has up to this time-proved sufficient for the purpose.