The Colonial Secretary, Straits Settlements,
Singapore.
No. II
From H.B.M.'s Resident, Perak, to the Honorable the Colonial Secretary
Teluk Anson, April 26, 1882.
Sir - I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the
14th instant, calling upon me for information as to the progress made
toward the extinction of debt slavery in this State since 1879, for
transmission to Her Majesty's Secretary of State.
2. In reply I have the honor to report that the policy explained in my
letters to your predecessor, dated 28th May and 14th December, 1878,
has been steadily pursued in Perak; all slave debtors who have appealed
to the protection of the courts having their cases adjudicated upon on
the most liberal terms consistent with justice to the creditors, and a
considerable number have availed themselves of the facilities presented
to them and bought up the claims upon them.
3. Further and more intimate knowledge of the people has confirmed the
impression that whatever may have been the case in former times,
cruelty to slaves or slave debtors has been very rare since the
establishment of settled government, and in every instance in which
such has come to my knowledge or to that of the British officers,
manumission without compensation was carried out.
4. Three such cases have occurred in the families of two very high
officers of State, and these, with one other case, are all the
instances of cruelty which have been reported to me.
5. An attempt was made in 1879 to procure a census of the population
through the chiefs of the village communities. Each of these chiefs
recorded the name of every householder in his district with the number
of persons, distinguishing their sex and condition.
6. A total of 47,359 is thus arrived at for the free native Malay
population. Of these 14,875 were males above, and 9,313 below, 16 years
of age. The females numbered 14,761 and 8,410.
7. The number of slaves was returned as 1,670, of whom 775 were males
and 895 females. The slave debtors were respectively 728 and 652,
giving a total of 1,380; the two servile classes numbering, of both
sexes, 3,050. I fear, however, that these numbers do not include all
the bond population, as His Highness the Regent and one or two others
with extensive claims did not give in returns.
8. I regret to state that the attempt which, as reported in my letter
of the 14th December, was liberally made by the Toh Puan Halimah, chief
wife of the ex-Mentri of Perak, to facilitate the manumission of her
slaves and debtors by working off the just claims against them on fair
terms, was successful only to a very inconsiderable extent. The Malays
of Perak are, as a rule, so adverse to and so unaccustomed to steady
labor, and can so easily provide for their wants, that they altogether
decline, except for short periods, to perform services of any nature
even for high wages.
