J. G. Davidson's appointment (1875)

No. 336

Colonial Secretary's Office¹, Singapore, 20 January 1875

I am directed to inform you that the Governor has been pleased to appoint you, subject to the confirmation by the Secretary of State², to be Her Majesty's Resident to the Sultan of Salangor, and to communicate to you the following instructions for your guidance in the duties of that office.

His Excellency desires that you will proceed at once to Klang, where you will establish yourself at first, making such arrangements for your personal accommodation as the nature of the case will admit of, and proceeding as soon as possible to organize a Resident Guard and Police of such force as you may think proper under the circumstances, applying to the Inspector General of Police for a few men from Singapore or Malacca in the first instance as a commencement.

His Excellency desires that you will at once publish notices far and wide, not only in Salangor, Klang, Langat, Lookoot, Lingie, and other places in Salangor, but also in Perak, Malacca, Singapore, and Penang, recalling all fugitives, promising them protection, and taking special steps for having such of them as possessed property restored to the possession of their property, and providing all of them with waste land to cultivate if they wish to cultivate.

Approximately 300 days before J. G. Davidson received his appointment letter, he and J. W. W. Birch visited the Malay States (between 29 March 1874 to 15 April 1874). The group photos were taken by John E. Taylor in Tunku Kudin's tambak in Pangkalan Batu on 3 April 1874 (Friday). Both Davidson and Birch can be seen wearing the distinctive white sola topī.³

His Excellency attaches much importance⁴ to success in inducing these people to return to Selangor and trusts that you will give your best attention to the matter.

You are requested to make a report at your earliest convenience on the general subject of the revenue system which you think should be adopted.

His Excellency is of opinion that waste lands should be freely granted to bona fide intending cultivators on terms free of state tax for 3 years, and after 3 years to be liable to 5% on estimated produce on lands cleared and cultivated subject to be commuted to a yearly money payment, but large grants of land should be sparingly given without guarantee of intended cultivation or of large sums being spent in the erection of machinery or that they should be given liable to a small tax of so much an acre, if not cultivated within a reasonable time, and kept in a state of cultivation.

1. James Guthrie Davidson (b. 1837, d. 1891) was a Singapore lawyer and the founder of the Malayan Tin Mining Company. This letter (1957/0000002W) was written by Thomas Braddell (b. 1823, d. 1891), and directed to Davidson, informing him that he was appointed as the first Resident of Selangor by Sir Andrew Clarke (b. 1824, d. 1902). Bradell was the replacement for Birch was the latter was transferred to Perak. Note that the name of the office is marked as ‘Colonial Secretary's Office' and not ‘Office of Secretary for Native States' (e.g. 1957/0000003W, in a letter dated 2 February 1875).
   
   
   The Chinese seal of the British Resident of Selangor reads: 大英國駐紮色壠哦叅議臣印 Salangore Resident 1874 (e.g. 1957/0004273W). The seal was likely fabricated in 1874 and Clarke's plan was to simultaneously appoint both Davidson and Birch as British Residents in the same year after they concluded their trip to the Malay States.
   
   
2. Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert (b. 1831, d. 1890), 4th Earl of Carnarvon was the Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1858 to 1859. And later Colonial Secretary in 1866-1867 and 1874-1878. He reportedly opposed the policies of Sir William Jervois and J. W. W. Birch in the Malay States. See Isabella Bird, Kay Chubbuck (ed.) (2002) Letters to Henrietta, Northeastern University Press, Boston, p. 319.
   
   
3. Literarally, sun hat. Topī is a Hindi word and it is also borrowed by the Malays (توڤي). Many authors like to use these photographs when they write about the history of the Malay states, unfortunately incorrect interpolations and extrapolations are added by these authors. For example, Abdur-Razzaq Lubis (2018), but he mistook the seated man in the second photo as Captain Yap (see p. 387). In the history textbook (歴史・第二冊, 2019, p. 122) used by Chinese independent high schools, we were told that the seated man was a translator to Tunku Kudin. Both Hon Yon Kee 韓佑祺 (2021) and Liew Kam Ba 劉崇漢 (2023) repeated this mistake in their books (Chinese pioneers in Malaya: A photographic record 馬來亞華人先驅拍攝錄, p.42 and A Century of enterprise: The history of the Chinese in Kuala Lumpur (1857 - 1957) 百年建業・吉隆坡華人歴史, p. 55). Actually the name of the seated man was Loi Fat and he was the translator recommended by W. A. Pickering to Birch. It is likely that he was with Birch when his boss was assasinated in November 1875
   
   
4. Clarke's guidelines to the 39-year-old Davidson on how to handle the defeated side of the Klang War was very clear: Recall them back to Selangor and return their properties to them, keep them safe, keep them protected, keep them busy with agricultural activities by giving them tax-free land for the first three years. Apparently Clarke was of the opinion that if these elements can create disturbances in other Malay states if their energies were not harvested or regulated properly.