THE BASIS of British Far Eastern policy during much of the 19th century was the valuable China trade and the security of the commercial routes by which that trade was exploited. The problem facing policy makers in London was not the acquisition of large amounts of territory—an idea repugnant to successive Colonial Secretaries—but the possession of strategically located and small naval stations and entrepôts which could command the sea routes through the Indian Ocean, the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea. So dominant was the Manchester School of thinking upon British colonial policy during the middle...

IT WAS characteristic of British policy during much of the 19th century that questions of the security of the lines of empire were more often the subject of dispatches and petitions from the field than of government memoranda and decisions.¹ Officials in London were usually occupied with affairs in Europe and the day to day operations of the government departments. They were seldom found in the forefront of those groups demanding firm action on colonial or defence problems in the South China Sea much before the 1870s. Consuls, colonial officials, and merchants in the East were the prodders. They were...

IN THIS study of Sarawak it is not intended to deal with internal developments per se. Nor is it intended to assess the administration of the government by the Brooke dynasty. We are primarily interested in those aspects of Sarawak’s 19th century history which shed light on her relations with Britain, and which led to the protectorate agreement of 1888.

It is therefore necessary to trace the development of Britain’s attitudes and policies towards Brooke and Sarawak back to the earliest days of the Brooke raj.

Soon after becoming Raja, James Brooke applied to the British government for protection. In...

THE DEATH of Raja Brooke in 1868 and the succession of his nephew Charles Johnson Brooke marked a change of emphasis in British policy in Borneo. In this regard two factors were at play. Firstly, the improved economic condition of Sarawak convinced Raja Charles that the country could continue independently. There seemed little hope of a British protectorate in the immediate future, and Brooke was not inclined, as his uncle had been, to seek a foreign protector. Secondly, and partly motivated by the stability of Sarawak, the centre of attention now moved up the coast to Brunei. Indeed the focal...

BRITISH POLICY in Borneo during the 1860s and 1870s has now been examined through the eyes of the Foreign and Colonial Offices, the two departments of government most concerned with the British interest in the area. The development of the main issues confronting policy makers has been traced and it has been shown that the policy was weak and ineffective although no strong challenge had arisen to test the British position. British intervention was necessary because of the failure of policy. We now come to a point in Anglo-Bornean relations, around the year 1878, when it became evident that British...

IN GRANTING a charter to the British North Borneo Company Britain found herself the sponsor of a handful of colonial administrators in a sparsely populated jungle area the size of Ireland. In the summer of 1881 William Treacher was loaned by the Colonial Office to become the first Governor of North Borneo. He made Labuan the temporary headquarters of his government. The Provisional Association in London wanted Labuan for the headquarters of the new government and urged the Colonial Office to turn over the colony to the Company. But the Colonial Office, often critical of the Company and its activities,...