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THE BROOKE DYNASTY

Mr. Alleyne Ireland, whose work on the 'Far Eastern Tropics is one of the best descriptions of Sarawak and the Brooke rule yet published, writes me as follows:

The Rajah has, naturally, incurred the enmity of a good many people, from the steady policy he adopted, and to which he has always adhered, of refusing to regard the exploitation of his dominions in the interests of commerce as being consistent with the happiness and welfare of his people.

Rajah Brooke in his own dominions is a great man; to Downing Street he is merely a counter in the great party game. His sons are also counters. In dealing with Downing Street at this juncture Rajah Brooke is omnipotent if he only knew it, but in verbal fence he is a child in the hands of Mr. Harcourt and his expert advisers. In this country we think too much in compartments. At first blush there is nothing to connect the Brooke Dynasty and personal rule in Sarawak with the cost of the Insurance Act or the increase of the wages of the bluejackets. His Majesty's Government, however, are on the alert for new sources of revenue, and, if rumour speaks truly, they have marked down Sarawak and the Brooke Dynasty as a source of future revenue. With the differences of the Brooke family the public is not concerned, except so far as those differences affect the welfare of the inhabitants of Sarawak. Rajah Brooke has publicly announced his intention of forming an Advisory Committee in London for the purpose of securing a continuity of the Brooke policy in Sarawak. What Rajah Brooke sets up, his successor might destroy with one stroke of a pen. The reigning Rajah may make what decrees seem good to him, but unless his decrees are confirmed by his Heir their existence might be contemporaneous with his life.

The three sons of Rajah Brooke are able men. The Rajah Muda has been trained for administration. The second son, the Tuan Muda, is impregnated with the traditions of his family, and is capable of rendering great service to his brother and the State of Sarawak when the time comes for a change of rulers. The same may be said of the third son. Still, a day may come when the reigning Rajah of Sarawak may be a fool, a voluptuary, or an absentee. The only person to guard against the contingency of these dangers is the Rajah himself, who is now in England. The will of Peter the Great and the will of Napoleon, whether genuine or apocryphal, have had a vast effect on human affairs. The will of the Rajah must affect for centuries the people of Sarawak.

If the Brooke Dynasty is to continue, and the inhabitants. of Sarawak are to be protected from the ambitious capitalists

with cosmopolitan minds, it is essential that Rajah Brooke shall execute and publish to the world a political will and testament, setting forth the conditions under which future Rajahs of Sarawak shall conduct the administration.

The first Rajah made a will which is binding on his successor. In that will is the following clause :

I, James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak of Burrator in the County of Devon give devise and bequeath all that my sovereignty of Sarawak aforesaid and all the rights and privileges whatsoever thereto belonging unto my nephew Charles Johnson Brooke the Tuan Muda of Sarawak son of the Reverend Francis Charles Johnson and the heirs male of his body lawfully issuing and in default of such issue unto my Nephew Stuart Johnson another son of the said Francis Charles Johnson and the heirs male of his body lawfully issuing and in default of such issue I give devise and bequeath the said sovereignty and rights and privileges unto Her Majesty the Queen of England her heirs and assigns for ever and I appoint Miss Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts of Stratton Street Piccadilly and Thomas Fairbairn of the City of Manchester Esquire and John Abel Smith of Chester Square in the County of Middlesex Esquire M.P. Trustees of this my Will to see the purposes aforesaid carried into effect.

Since the first Rajah by his will devised and bequeathed the Sovereignty Rights and Privileges of Sarawak to his successor under such conditions as he thought fit, it is equally competent for the reigning Rajah to make his own provisions for maintaining the continuity of his policy. The three sons of the Rajah are competent and intelligent men who, if ready and willing to defend their country and its people, would naturally be the persons upon whom that duty would fall. The climate of Sarawak being equatorial is trying, especially to English ladies. But if the Rajah's younger sons were entrusted with definite duties the brothers might, if necessary, procure continuity of policy by changing places for the time being with their elder brother when he succeeds to the Raj, thus avoiding the dangers of absenteeism.

The Rajah's three sons are recognised by the people of Sarawak as the Heir apparent and the Heirs presumptive. No one can gainsay the proposition that a weak despot able to parcel out the country to company promoters irrespective of the people's rights would inflict a deadly wound on Sarawak. It would be well that the younger brothers of the Rajah Muda should be known and acknowledged in England under their Sarawak titles, in order that their hereditary rights regarding Sarawak should be clearly understood by the public. It would add to the security of the country if the championship of Sarawak interests were carried on by men with hereditary right to speak up for their country.

THE COLONIAL OFFICE

In assessing the value of a British Administrator Lord Cromer attributes 75 per cent. to character and 25 per cent. to brains. In assessing the value of the political side of the Colonial Office it would be safe to credit the administration with 75 per cent. of brains. The percentage of character is an unknown quantity. No Government Department is to be trusted in the sense that Rajah Brooke is to be trusted. For that reason the appointment of a Sarawak Council in London, composed of men capable of handling the Colonial Office with firmness and knowledge, and enjoying the confidence of the public, is one essential condition for the future safety of Sarawak. The dealings of the Colonial Office with the Federated Malay States, with Trinidad, and with Jamaica make it highly undesirable that Downing Street should finger Sarawak on its own terms. The only barrier against the exploitation of Sarawak is an enlightened public opinion in support of the reigning Rajah. The Colonial Office fears two things, and two only-i.e. questions in Parliament and discussions in the Press. The Secretary of State has not hitherto interfered with the future of Sarawak. The future of Sarawak rests with the builder, whose character and record command respect, and will receive the support of everyone in this country whose support is worth having.

ARNOLD WHITE.

POSTSCRIPT.-Since the above was in print, I have had the advantage of conferring with those who are best qualified to know the views of the Rajah himself.

So far as the treatment of Sarawak is concerned after the death of the present Rajah, the position is simply this-that what the Rajah is now doing is by way of caution. Of the intentions of the Colonial Office-or even whether Sarawak has ever occupied their thoughts or their time at all-nothing is officially known; but why this question requires caution, and the rights of the people of Sarawak require to be guarded in the future, is because (as we see in the British and Dutch possessions around Sarawak, in the Malay States, in British North Borneo, Sambas, etc., and now in the surroundings of Brunei) the great source of revenue is the land, and that land belongs to the inhabitants. This is the real danger, which must be guarded against in time and not too late; and if the question be closely examined, one can easily find cases now in the East where the natives have been deprived of their land most unjustly, and-poor things-can they ever find a friend in high places who can give them any real satisfaction in the way of justice or recompense for injustice which will injure

them and their descendants for ever-the loss of their inheritance? Are their complaints ever heard, or their rights considered, with the view to just treatment, when European companies step in with capital to supply the Government with funds, and to supply shareholders with what they seek—a dividend? No. Let the stricken deer go weep, the hart unwounded play.' These are the points that require adjustment, and to be placed on a footing of security while yet there is time.

In regard to the future of Sarawak, one point of the compass guides all companies, and also, unfortunately, through the powerful influence of the capitalists, leads the Colonial Office and Governments to a great degree at the present time—it is moneymoney-money-the curse of man's moral sense and existence. The sale of such lands to foreigners is a mercenary transaction, and not worthy of a highly civilised Government.

These are the clogs-les pierres d'achoppement-that the Rajah foresees as inimical to Sarawak's future safety.

The Sarawak Administration does not wish to blame anyonefrom the Secretary of State downwards-but the evil is present. The natives' protests are invariably put on the shelf, and the blind eye of bureaucracy turned to them, while the other eye, that sees and glitters with the vision of pence in the pocket, looks to the City men. They are eagerly listened to, and land sold wholesale, as was done in South and East Africa. Was it not this which led to the resignation of Sir Charles Eliot?

The capitalist is the monarch that rules the world. It may again be repeated, that is the reason for caution in Sarawak's future. We see the examples before us taking place almost every day; and naturally the Singapore or Straits Government would like to haul Sarawak in, and put her under the same category as other protected States in the Eastern Archipelago.

The Dreadnought that is to be so generously given to the British Government will be principally paid 'for out of rubber estates planted on the lands of the native inhabitants.

ARNOLD WHITE.

THE LISTENER SPEAKS

THE last half-century has opened new horizons. Take the prehistoric past sixty years since all that we needed to know, or could know, was it not revealed? Then came Darwin. Nobody under middle age can realise the altered outlook. For one thing, we are at liberty to admit the facts. Some storied windows have. suffered, and the inrush of clean sunlight is bewildering. Ascertained truths teem in upon us by the thousand; fresh material, the output of new sciences; old lore known for a century past to nurse and surgeon, who had not recognised its drift; and, best of all, the rediscovered lifework of neglected worthies, such as Mendel, who wrought and died in the shadow. It all fits in. The ever-growing mass of it overwhelms. It is vain to call a halt, but will nobody co-ordinate the facts, even provisionally?

Our pre-human, or semi-human, or proto-human ancestor of the dim, red dawn, what was his outward seeming? Almost anything is possible except that primal pair of well-tubbed Caucasian youths in a thornless, rainless garden. Not quite anything-we never flew until A.D. 1910; but it seems evident that we swam and breathed as fishes breathe, for the looped arteries of our necks imply gills. Later we went upon all fours ; the erect posture still tries the plantar ligaments, and certain parts of our venous system have a difficulty in accommodating themselves to its exigencies: hence we get flat-foot, varicose veins, &c. We had tails in that distant past; we have them still antenatally. In recent times, geologically speaking, we were covered with fur from head to foot; each of us is still so clothed up to the sixth month of his intra-uterine life. At some period of our family history when the perambulator was not, our mothers expected us to cling to them as they swung from bough to bough an obligation which has left memories, as anyone will admit who has watched a ten-minute-old baby grapple to a walking-stick and swing clear of the coverlet self-sustained. Evidences of queer vicissitudes in our past confuse us by their abundance. Students of human anatomy point to nearly seventy vestigial survivals of organs, muscles, membranes, and whatnot,

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