The Beginnings of British Political Control in Malaya, 1874–6

Abstract

THE wars in Malaya were not an election issue in 1874 like the Ashanti War. The Straits of Malacca question, which briefly held the political headlines during January 1874, concerned the Dutch invasion of northern Sumatra, not Britain’s intervention in the Peninsula. Although a telegram announcing the appointment of the first Resident reached the Colonial Office on 24 January 1874, and a Reuter’s cable indicating that Clarke had ended the war in Perak actually appeared in The Observer on the following day, neither of the political leaders found any political ammunition in them for their election manifestoes which were being drafted over the same week-end.¹