RESHAPING MALAYA.

Evening Star, Issue 25699, 24 January 1946, Page 4

RESHAPING MALAYA.

The British Government's L>:'»-i;us>al to regroup the Straits Settlements and ! the Malay States to form two, and only two, separate administrations will be welcomed by the populations concerned for the increased efficiency it promises. It will be welcomed by others all over the world as simplifying the tangle of administrations and of nomenclature that has been too much a bar to knowledge. As the complication stands to-day, the student of world affairs has to grapple first of all with the Straits Settlements, a Crown Colony, comprising the settlements of Singapore, Penang, Malacca, and Labuan. That is to define their composition in the simplest way, because Singapore includes the Cocos Islands, more than a thousand miles distant, and Christmas' Island, both in the Indian Ocean, and Penang includes Province Wellesley, on the coast. Next there are the Federated Malay States, in number four, and last the Unfederated Malav States, a collection of five. The total area ofr the Crown Colony is no more than 1,356 square miles, with a population of a million and a-half, _ Chinese predominating, especially in Singapore. Chinese predominate also in the Federated, and are numerous in the Unfederated Malay States. The administration of the colony was. before the war, in the hands of a governor, aided by an • Executive Council, and there was also a Legislative Council. Each of the States had a Malay ruler, who was assisted by a State Council; Each State, by a separate treaty with the British Government, had accepted a British officer to advise it in the general administration, and had bound itself to act; upon that advice in all matters except such as affected the Moslem religion and Malay customs. In practice, in the Federated • States, these officers, or '' British Residents," became executive officers, administering the government; in the name of the rulers. The. Governor of the Straits Settlements was,*ex officio, High Commissioner for the Malay States, and, in the Federated Malay States, he was President of the Federal Council.

All this now is to be made simpler, by agreement with the native peoples. All the Malay States, as well as Penang and Malacca, will be included in one union. The Malaya Union and Singapore will have separate governors and executive councils, and there' will be a governor-general over all, who will not have any direct administrative functions, but will co-ordinate and direct the policies of the Government. All the Malay States will be drawn more closely together. There will be new rights for Malayans, as distinct from Malays, who have lived for ten years • in the Union. • Immigration into Malaya of foreign'nationalities has been on such a scale that the imnii-, grants far outnumber the native ! j people of the country. The term " Malays" has been used to mean the indigenous people, excluding the descendants of immigrants from the Netherlands East IndieSj and " Malayans " to mean Eurasians and tho descendants of- immigrants from that' region, China, India, Ceylon, and other countries. It has all been very complicated, and every simplification of the intricate scheme should be an advantage.