§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYpresented a petition from the Bankers, Merchants, and Residents at Singapore, in the Straits of Malacca, praying that English interests in those settlements may receive full consideration in the Re-organization of the Executive Government of India. The petitioners expressed the satisfaction with which they had seen the termination of the Indian mutiny, and the transference of the Governor of the Company to the Crown, called attention to the growing importance of the trade between Singapore and Great Britain, which was now greater than that between Singapore and the East Indian possessions. The whole amount, of exports and imports into Singapore exceeded £12,000,000, greater than the whole trade of the Dutch in those seas, and next in importance to Bombay after Calcutta and Madras. They prayed that in consideration of the amount of British capital involved in the settlement of Singapore, with a view to its more efficient protection, and to counteract the encroachments of the Dutch, Parliament would consent to transfer the rule of that settlement from India to the Imperial Government, and that a governor of Singapore and of the Straits Settlements might be appointed, with extended powers similar to those of the Governor of Hong Kong and the Superintendent of British trade in China. and they asked that this Governor should be enabled to negotiate treaties with the Native Powers for the extension of our trade, and to see that our engagements with the Dutch and other Powers in those seas were duly observed. The petitioners considered this imperatively necessary for the safe protection of British trade in the Archipelago. They also called attention to the circumstances under which the settlement of Sarawak, on the mainland of Borneo, and at no great distance from Singapore, had been formed by Sir James Brooke, and begged that the claims of the British residents and settlers in Sarawak might be taken into consideration, and that Sarawak might become one of the British Colonies, or at all events taken under the protection of the British Crown. The noble Lord said that, taking into view the magnitude of the commerce of Singapore, aid its vast increase since it was originally established by the forethought and sagacity of Sir Stamford Raffles, this was a request not hastily to be refused. Singapore was the emporium of all the British trade with 1603 the Indian Archipelago, Java, Siam, and Cochin China. That trade, taking imports and exports together, now amounted annually to £12,000,000 sterling. Singapore was also the port where every steamer or sailing vessel engaged in the trade with China, which was now so greatly on the increase, must pass; the vessels going to the China seas must call at Singapore to obtain their coal or other supplies, and through Singapore must pass every line of electric telegraph that might hereafter be laid down to connect us with any point in the Eastern Archipelago. It should be observed that other European nations were now making great efforts to establish or extend their own settlements in that part of the world; the Dutch were spreading themselves more and more throughout the Indian Archipelago, and endeavouring to exclude the British merchants from a participation in the trade; the French were about to establish themselves in Cochin China, and New Caledonia, and the Spaniards were extending their possessions from the Philippine Islands to the Sooloo Islands and the neighbourhood of Borneo. It was, therefore, most important that a British Governor and Superintendent of Trade furnished with competent authority should be stationed at Singapore to watch the proceedings of foreign nations, and to protect our own interests in those seas. Hitherto the government of Singapore had been under the authority of the Governor General of India. One matter of which the inhabitants of Singapore complained, and not without reason, was, that the place had been made the depôt of the convicts from India; and not only that, but they were obliged to expend large sums for the maintenance of those convicts; and they expressed the gratification which they felt that on a recent occasion the Indian mutineers were not transported to Singapore, as was at first intended, but to the Andaman Islands. He did think that if it were still deemed necessary for India that convicts should be sent to the settlements of Singapore and Malacca, at any rate the expense of maintaining them there ought to fall entirely upon the Indian revenues. He (Lord Stanley) thought it was of great importance that there should be at Singapore an officer, authorized to protect British interests in those seas, and to negotiate treaties with the Native Powers. Another point to which the petitioners called attention was the importance and facility of making Singapore a great naval 1604 arsenal. We had no place in those Indian seas where ships could be repaired or refitted; at Hong Kong, he believed, there was no accommodation for the purpose, but Singapore was admirably adapted for that purpose; it was a place where every vessel on her way must touch, and the port was considered very good, and the absence of storms rendered it a safe anchorage for shipping. He understood that the revenues of Singapore were amply sufficient to pay the expenses of its civil government, though of course the military expenses were another matter; hitherto they had been defrayed by the Indian Government; but if the Government were transferred to a Governor sent from England, it would be a question whether they should not fall upon the Imperial Exchequer. He thought it would be necessary to station a body of European troops there; and as the Navy Commission had recommended that an additional force of 5,000 English marines should be levied, there was no place more suitable for a portion of them than Singapore, where they would protect the great highway of commercial intercourse between India and China, and would be ready, if required, to render valuable assistance on board ship, as there ought always to be a force of gun-boats stationed in the waters of Singapore. He therefore trusted he should receive from Government an assurance that they were not unfavourably disposed to entertain this question of transferring Singapore from the Governor General of India to the Government at home, and appointing a Governor of the Straits Settlements with competent powers. He had also to ask for information of the intentions of Her Majesty's Government with regard to the settlement of Sarawak. He had seen with regret that, in the autumn, a deputation which waited upon Lord Derby with respect to the claims of Sir James Brooke, and with a view to urge that the Government should take possession of that settlement and establish it as a British colony, received very little encouragement, or rather an answer which rendered their request almost hopeless. He would not now discuss the question of establishing a British colony there, or of granting any pecuniary compensation; but British settlers had gone there, British money had been invested there, the Government had established a bishopric there, and missionaries had gone out; and it would be a serious thing if that settlement was to be entirely deserted. The imme- 1605 diate consequence would be that it would be taken possession of by the Dutch; they would extend their dominion over the whole seaboard of Borneo, thus entirely excluding us from the trade of that vast island as well as the rest of the Indian Archipelago from which their intrigue and unjust usurpations had already driven us; but much of which might be regained and preserved by the exertions of an authorized Superintendent of British Trade established at Singapore with adequate power and authority.
THE EARL OF CARNARVONsaid, he quite agreed with the noble Lord as to the great importance of the Straits Settlements and their commercial relations, as the great intermediate station between the East and West, and an emporium where we had a trade now amounting to £12,000,000 or £13,000,000, and where, but forty years ago, Malay pirates were the only inhabitants. Application had been made to Her Majesty's Government by the residents of the Straits Settlements, who requested that the government of those Settlements should be transferred from the Indian Government to the direct control of the Government at home, namely, to the Colonial Office. This was a new fact in the history of the Colonial Office—that a body of European settlers should deliberately and spontaneously come forward and ask to be placed under the management of the Colonial Office. This was a very great contrast to the feelings with which, as must be remembered, the Colonial Office in Downing Street used to be regarded. The Government, however, knowing the existence of that wish amongst many of the English residents, were naturally anxious to accede to it. But a question arose with regard to the expenditure which would be incurred by such a transfer of the Government; and there were some considerations to be taken into account which had made it necessary to obtain the opinion of the Governor General of India, under whose control those Settlements now were. That step had been taken, and an answer was shortly expected, and it unquestionably would be satisfactory to Her Majesty's Government to find that the Report was a favourable one, and that they should he able to find it consistent with the interests of India to bring those settlements under the direct control of the Crown. It was not the occupation of any fresh territories that was contemplated, but rather a change in the distribution of the government. It was necessary, however, that before accepting an impor- 1606 tant change which would entail fresh charges on the Imperial revenue, the Government should consider what prospects there were of providing for it. This matter was under consideration and he was disposed to think, from the growing prosperity of Singapore, that the revenue of the island would be sufficient to meet the expenses of the administration. There was no rule of greater importance than to insist, as far as possible, upon every settlement or colony being self-supporting. It was not fair, on the other hand, that the colony should have to bear any charges of an Imperial nature, and the system of sending convicts there for exclusively Indian purposes, and charging the whole expense of them upon the colony, was one which could hardly be maintained; but there were certain expenses of a local nature which ought fairly to be defrayed by the colonial revenue.
§ THE EARL OF ELLENBOROUGHsaid, it appeared that there was a wish on the part of the merchants and inhabitants of Singapore that they should be placed under the immediate superintendence of the Colonial Office. Now if they were to be placed under the authority of any Secretary of State it appeared more reasonable that they should be placed under the Secretary of State for India than under the Secretary for the Colonies. Singapore was no doubt a place of great importance. It was a port to which all troops going out to China necessarily went, and in the event of War in China there must be a Government Commissariat depôt there. The question of erecting batteries and forts had occupied the attention of the Indian Government. Whatever might have been our successes hitherto in war with China, it was impossible not to look forward to some new necessities arising which would compel us to rely upon that place in a future war for such assistance as we had hitherto received from it. The troops to form the garrison must be furnished from India. There must be at least two companies of European artillery at Singapore, which might be sufficient, with a Native regiment supplied from India, to provide for its defence; but it would be at all times desirable that the troops there should be beyond the natural demand of the place itself, on account of the probable demand from China, and there ought always to be one regiment at Singapore available for service in China. He should wish one point to be well considered—the establish- 1607 ment of closed batteries of very heavy guns. The sea was very shallow in that quarter. Indeed it would be very difficult to bring a gun to bear on the usual anchorage there. We had not the power of throwing shot into the place where merchantmen lay. There had, no doubt, been some improvement effected, but still the defences of the place were not what they ought to be. Unless he was much mistaken he had had something to do with the change in the government of the colony. The former system had been extinguished, because it was found to be an enormous job. He could not say that the Indian Government had time to give all the attention that was desired to all the questions appertaining to the interests of the colony. It might indeed be necessary that the affairs of Singapore and the adjoining islands should be placed under a separate Secretary in the Government of India, in order to secure due attention to their interests. The affairs of India were, however, so mixed up with the affairs of Singapore, as the great port in the route to China, that very great difficulties would result if the administration were with-drawn from the Government of India. So far from acquiescing in changing the jurisdiction his disposition would be to extend the power of the Secretary of State for India to Hong Kong. There was no one so interested in the preservation of peace in China as the Governor General of India. The greater part of the commerce of India was commerce with China. The revenue from the trade in opium was derived from China. The great exports of India were those of cotton. The trade did not depend upon the direct exports of British manufactures. The direct exports from England in 1857 amounted only to £2,500,000, whilst the imports into China in the same year amounted to £11,500,000. The whole of that difference was supplied by the exports from India. It would be consistent, in his opinion, with public convenience and advantage to unite under one head—for India—all our concerns in the East connected with the great trade to India. He differed altogether in the opinions expressed by the noble Baron. If the noble Baron would but look a little back he would see that the former Government of Singapore was an enormous job, and that it was put an end to on that account. He took no credit to himself for having, during the short term he was in office, paid especial attention to this sub- 1608 ject; but he was certainly of opinion that it was absolutely necessary that Her Majesty's Government should look carefully into all the bearings of the question before they assented to the change suggested by the petitioners.
§ THE EARL OF DERBYsaid, he did not expect when the noble Baron gave notice of his intention of asking a question relative to the existing Government of Singapore, and to suggest the propriety of its being placed under the direct government of the Colonial Office, that he intended to put an equally important question with reference to Sarawak. He hoped the noble Baron would allow him (the Earl of Derby) to defer his answer to a future time, because, although he was then prepared to answer the noble Baron's inquiry generally, he should like to give him a more definite explanation upon the points referred to. The noble Baron was quite correct in saying that he (the Earl of Derby) had not long since received a deputation of gentlemen interested in the navigation and trade of Sarawak. This, however, was by no means a new question. The noble Baron knew there was nothing very novel in it. Some new facts had been brought before the Government, which were still under consideration; and among other difficulties which beset the case, one was the strong doubt that existed whether Sir James Brooke had any right to dispose of Sarawak. It was now believed that the coal of Labuan was more accessible than that of Sarawak. It appeared that Sarawak had been the principal coal depôt in that part of the world. The latest attempts, however, to increase the supply of coal had resulted in failure, and the coal of Labuan had been found to be superior.
§ EARL GREYsaid, at the time when Sir James Brooke first went out it was distinctly understood that it would be the policy of the Government that there should be no territorial settlement on the mainland of Borneo:—we knew very well by experience that if such settlements were established—if British power was once founded on a small part of a great territory—that that kind of dominion had an inevitable tendency to spread further and further. It invariably happened that in our relations with those barbarous Eastern Princes they entered lightly into treaties and broke them equally lightly. We thus got involved in difficulties by engagements of that kind, since we were compelled either to submit to the dishonour of allowing them to be 1609 broken, or else to punish the violation of treaties by hostility in which we were drawn on little by little to a very inconvenient extent, and entailing perhaps a heavy burden on the country. No man admired more than he did the character of Sir James Brooke, and no one had taken a greater interest in the success of his enterprize; but when it was agreed in 1846 that the Government of the day was to give him assistance and support, the arrangement was to the effect that we were to take possession of Labuan as a separate colony, which might be useful for commercial purposes, and which, from being a small island, was not likely to entangle us in private quarrels. But with respect to Sarawak, it was most distinctly understood that Her Majesty's Government was to have no concern whatever, and that Sir James Brooke was to act entirely as a private individual. The Government was only to assist him so far as to prevent piracy on those coasts—which in the general interests of commerce it could properly undertake to do. Beyond that protection against piracy, it was understood that Sir James Brooke had no other claim on the services of the Government. He believed that it was sound policy to adhere to that understanding. He (Earl Grey) wished to see a native State established there, and under Sir James Brooke there was a fair prospect of the spread of civilization in that country; but he did not think it was British dominion, or that British dominion should be extended to those regions. He quite concurred in the present petition as to the extreme importance of Singapore. He thought its interests should be watched over by the Government; but he hoped great caution would be observed in extending the power of the Governor of that settlement to enter into treaties with native Powers. The whole of his (Earl Grey's) experience led him to the conclusion that nothing was more dangerous than to enter into diplomatic relations with those barbarous Powers; and he thought the Governor of Singapore ought not to be entrusted with powers of that kind, except under very stringent restrictions.
§ LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEYsaid, that all he wished to ask from the Government was, what was to be done to protect British interests in Borneo? He was glad to hear that it was in contemplation to appoint a Governor with greater powers at Singapore.
§ Petition to lie on the table.