A Malayan Union: The Proposed New Constitution

Abstract

I. THE BACKGROUND. The total area of Malaya is 50,880 square miles of which the Federated Malay States account for 27,540, the Unfederated Malay States for 22,080, and the Straits Settlements for 1,260. To express the matter more geographically and in relation to the proposed New Constitution, the Peninsula is 50,660 square miles, and the Island of Singapore is 220. The Straits Settlements comprise Singapore, Penang, and Malacca, and Labuan off the Coast of Borneo. The four Federated States are Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, and Pahang, and the States outside the Federation are Johore, Kedah, Kelantan, Trengganu, and Perlis.' The first British Settlement was Penang, founded in 1786. In 1790 this Island was ceded by the Sultan of Kedah in perpetuity to the East India Company in return for an annual payment. A strip of the mainland, named Province Wellesley, was added in 1800. Singapore was founded in 1819 and a treaty was signed with the legitimate and de facto rulers of Johore, whereby the island was ceded in perpetuity to the East India Company in return for certain political pensions to the Johore ruling family. Penang was an uninhabited island, except for seasonal visits of fishermen, at the time of the British occupation, and Singapore in 1819 had a population of only 130 Malays living in a village overlooking the harbour. Malacca was occupied by British forces during the wars with the French but was finally obtained by the British from the Dutch in return for the settlement of Bencoolen in Sumatra.