The Malay Peninsula; A Record of British Progress in the Middle East (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912. Excerpt: ... It is interesting to speculate what would have been the effect on British development in Malaya if the offer of 1772 had been accepted. Possibly there would have been no Singapore and no Penang to-day. On the other hand, it is quite as conceivable that the entire Malay Peninsula would long since have been coloured red. After the rebuff at Trengganu, the Siamese did not venture again openly to interfere in the States outside their recognised zone. They were content to intrigue insidiously against British influence whenever and wherever it might be asserted in the non-federated States. In this indefinite fashion, events might have proceeded for a long time had not France, in 1884, been seized with a desire for territorial expansion in the East at the expense of Siam. The project then put forward was nullified by the British conquest of Upper Burma, but the matter was revived in 1889, when M. Waddington, the then French Ambassador in London, approached Lord Salisbury with a proposal for the delimitation of the boundaries of Siam with a view to its constitution as a buffer state between the French possessions in the North and the British possessions and dependencies in Burma and the Malay Peninsula. Lord Salisbury agreed in principle, but represented that there were a great many points of detail to be considered before any further step could be taken. After this, the question was referred to the India Office, then presided over by Lord Cross. In the result, independent negotiations were opened up with Siam, leading to the appointment of a boundary commission, composed of British and Siamese officers, for the delimitation of the Siamese frontier where it marched with British territory. A similar commission was appointed in 1890 by the French Government for the...