1867-1873 - the time when the colony in Malaya (Straits Settlement), having ceased to be a peripheral and often neglected part of the Indian possessions of England, gained independent significance. This, coupled with changes in international relations and new trends in the colonial policy of the powers, on the one hand, contributed to the transformation of the colony into an important outpost of the British Empire in Asia, and on the other - meant a transition to more active than before, British intervention in the affairs of the Malay principalities. It was during these years that Harry Ord was Governor of Straits Settlement.

Ord had no experience of serving in the East, was power-hungry and inflexible, and had arrived in Malaya at a time when London was just beginning to move from a policy of" non-interference " in the affairs of the Malay principalities to their capture. Sir Henry, although he felt the wind of change in British colonial policy, underestimated the position of the upper echelons of local society and the inertia of the Colonial Office, and thus condemned himself to isolation and alienation in both London and Singapore. However, having failed in his attempts to interfere in the affairs of the principalities, he successfully managed to give Straits Settlement the appearance and standards of a crown colony, thereby fulfilling the task that was assigned to him.

On April 1, 1867, the British enclaves on the Malay frontier, called Straits Settlements ("Straits Settlements" - Malacca), were separated from the Indian possessions of Great Britain and became a crown colony. There were three settlements: the island of Penang off the northwest coast of Malaya, captured by the British East India Company (AOIC) in 1786, and administratively united with it the Province of Wellesley (Rai) - a small territory opposite Penang, acquired by the AOIC from the Sultan of the principality of Kedah in 1800; Malacca in the south-western part of the Strait - the oldest European possession on the Malacca Peninsula, passing from the Portuguese to the Dutch, from the Dutch to the English, then back to the Dutch, until in 1824 the city finally fell into the hands of the AOIC, which expanded this enclave in 1832 at the expense of the small Malay principality of Naning; and finally, Singapore-an island at the southern tip of the peninsula, on which England established itself in 1819, and the rapidly growing settlement on it became the administrative center of Straits Settlement in 1832.

On April 3, 1867, a message was sent from Singapore to Lord Kimberley, Secretary of State for the Colonies of Great Britain: "My Lord, I have the honor to announce that I have sworn in as Governor and accepted the administration of the Straits Settlement Colony.

At the ceremony... There were a lot of people present: almost all Europeans in Singapore and a large number of locals. All institutions and trading houses were closed, and by common consent this day was declared a day off. Chinese residents by-

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they spent considerable money on the illumination of the city and fireworks, thus expressing their satisfaction with the changes that this ceremony symbolized " [cit. by: Parkinson, 1960, p. 1]. The message was signed: Governor Harry St. George Ord.

The Colonel's career, which was promoted to Major General and knighted shortly after becoming Governor of Straits Settlement, was typical of administrators of not very high (but not entirely insignificant) rank in the British Colonial Office. Born in 1819 to a country gentleman's family, Harry, like other younger scions of the English middle class, left school and entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1835. In 1837, he graduated from the Academy with a degree in military engineering and worked in the West Indies and West Africa. In 1854, with the rank of major, he participated in the Eastern (Crimean) War against Russia, having distinguished himself during the siege and storming of Bomarzund in the Baltic. In 1855, he was transferred to the Colonial Office and sent to West Africa, where he was Commissioner on the Gold Coast (1855-1856), and in 1856-1857 and 1860 was one of the British commissioners at the courts of Paris and The Hague, who regulated the division of colonial possessions in West Africa. He served as Deputy Governor of Dominica (1857) and, after being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, became Governor of Bermuda (1861-1866). In 1864, he again visited West Africa as a special commissioner [Song Ong Siang, 1923, p. 94-95].

Colonel Ord was a capable and experienced administrator. It was these qualities that brought him to the attention of the permanent Under-Secretary of the Colonies, Frederick Rogers, who wanted to reorganize as quickly and efficiently as possible the slow and somewhat lazy way of life, which largely copied the methods of the Anglo-Indian administration of the society on the border of the Empire, into a regular crown colony on the model of those

Rogers provided the new governor with detailed instructions written in his own hand, which focused on the need to bring the colony's administration up to standard. There are two key provisions in the instructions. The first of them Ord strictly carried out in practice, and the second was neglected. This, combined with the inflexible and authoritarian nature of the governor, was the reason for his estrangement from local society and subordinates, as well as those unfortunate and hasty actions that were supposed to strengthen British influence in the Malay principalities, actions that did not satisfy the Straits Settlemens businessmen and did not meet with the approval of London. These provisions were: the strictest economy of the colony's budget, which was burdened by a significant deficit during the years of being part of the Indian possessions, especially increased during the transition period of 1859-1866, and the urgent advice to constantly consult with unofficial, i.e. appointed from among the local elite, members of the Legislative Council formed (in accordance with the status of the crown colony). It is significant that the instructions did not concern the colony's relations with neighboring Malay sultanates at all, which was explained by the lack of a clear and clearly expressed attitude towards these sultanates in the context of the frequent change of British cabinets in the second half of the 60s of the XIX century. and the time required to develop a policy in Southeast Asia in connection with the activation of other powers (France The Netherlands, Spain, and even Prussia and Italy) in this region (Cowan, 1962, p. 30, 144). The ambitious and self-confident Ord was not discouraged: he seemed to be looking at an opportunity to become an imperial builder, a new Raffles or Brooke, an opportunity that had long since disappeared for the strong - willed and enterprising administrators at their former posts in Dominica or Bermuda.

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But all this - the rebuilding of the colony, attempts to play the role of proconsul, loneliness in society, periodic cold showers from London, unfulfilled dreams-was ahead of him, and in the meantime, the hopeful 48-year-old colonel hurried the shortest way to his new place of service.

A mail steamer took Ord from England to Alexandria, from where the colonel reached Suez on the Red Sea by rail (the Suez Canal was still under construction). On another mail steamer, Ord arrived at the first settlement of his colony, Penang Island, on March 14, 1867, via Bombay and Colombo. Ord's companion on the long voyage was Major John Frederick Adolphus McNair, who was returning to his post, and from whom the governor received his first information about his new domain.1
In George Town, the administrative center of Penang, Ord learned that his predecessor, Orfier Cavenagh, had left Singapore the day after the new governor touched the Straits Settlement, two weeks before the formal transfer of power, and that Lieutenant Colonel Henry Meng, the Deputy Governor and chief of Staff of Penang, had been forced to leave for Singapore. Singapore as Acting Governor. Ord did not become familiar with Georgetown and its environs, described with such admiration by the shipwright Cameron [Cameron, 1865], nor with the Province of Wellesley, no less enthusiastically represented by Maine in his book [Man, 1868]: he would read these works later, in Singapore.

Together with McNair, Ord boarded a local mail boat. The steamer ran along the low, mangrove-covered western shores of the Malacca Peninsula. Shocked by his predecessor's public outburst, Ord hardly listened to McNair talk about the principalities of Perak and Selangor, especially the islands along the coast that Perak had ceded to England in 1826, but were still a haven for local pirates.

After a short stop in Malacca on March 16, the steamer entered Singapore's old harbor, from where Ord rode in a wheelchair to the governor's residence in the city center. For two weeks, Ord's position was somewhat ambiguous, and his reaction to the situation largely determined the governor's subsequent relationship with the" cream " of Singapore society. Ord, before taking office, insisted on being addressed as "Your Excellency," and Sir Peter Benson Maxwell, the Chief Justice, who in the days of the "Indian" government was considered a representative of the Crown, and not of the Calcutta authorities, as the governors before Ord had been, believed that the latter was not entitled to such a title before taking the oath of office. it has.

It was the morning of April 1. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Meng, Acting Governor, arrived at the city Hall under the seventeen-gun salvo of Fort Canning, Singapore's citadel. He was followed, also to the salute, by Colonel Ord, who, without greeting those present or taking off his hat, perched gloomily on the podium. As a nineteenth - century chronicler of Singapore life later wrote, "the impression that he (Harry Ord.-W. T.) made was never erased and remained throughout all the years of his stay in the colony" (Buckley, 1902, p. 787). This impression is finally consolidated-

1 McNair joined the Straits Settlement in 1853 as a lieutenant and served successively in Malacca, Labuan Island (North Kalimantan) and Singapore. In 1857, he became an engineer of the colony and warden of the prison. He was a popular figure in the local community, married both of his daughters to respectable people - partners of large Singapore firms, subsequently took an active part in the events associated with the establishment of English power in the western Malay principalities, and finally made a fairly significant contribution to the literature on pre-colonial Malaya, writing a book [McNair, 1878], in which Not only did he tell about the suppression of the anti-English uprising of 1875-1876 in the Sultanate of Perak, but also collected interesting information about the political and social structure of the Malay principalities. Another of his co-authored books is of interest mainly for the characterization of the penal system in the English colonies (McNair and Bayliss, 1899).

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moose, when the commander of the British South Seas squadron, Admiral Henry Keppel, who is extremely popular in Singapore society, entered the hall. Keppel bowed courteously to all the people present, and made the rounds of all the ladies, starting with the elderly Jose d'Almeida, widow of one of the richest merchants who had started his business in Singapore in the time of T. S. Raffles, the city's founder. He refused to take a seat on the podium where the governor sat alone, and disappeared among his many friends in the audience.

Ord had taken up a position that was not highly regarded in the colonial English system. His predecessors appointed by the East India Company had never been raised to the rank of Knight or General, and only O. Cavenagh, a veteran of the Anglo-Indian Army, had struggled to the rank of Major General. The colony was small: the population of Singapore numbered about 100 thousand people, of which 60 thousand were Chinese. Penang, Wellesley Province, and Malacca were far behind Singapore. The European population was no more than 800 people (Cameron, 1865, p. 109). It was the European population of the Straits Settlement, especially in Singapore, that opposed the new governor.

Singapore's secular society consisted of officials, bankers, lawyers, doctors, and officers, but the "aristocrats" in this society were rich merchants. At the top were those who settled in Singapore during the time of Thomas Stamford Raffles in 1820-1822 or a little later. It was they who founded the trading firms that flourished in the Straits Settlement and set the tone for Singapore's entire life (Guthrie & Co., A. L. Johnston & Co., John Purvis & Sons, W. H. Smith & Co., etc.). Spottiswood & Co., Patterson, Simone & Co., Syme & Co.). Seniority in this circle belonged to the trading house "Jose d'Almeida and sons", and Admiral Keppel greeted the widow of the founder of the firm first at the inauguration of the Horde. This circle was joined by later firms, of which the most influential was the trading house of the Little brothers, nephews of Dr. Alexander Martin, who accompanied Raffles on his travels in Sumatra and discovered with him a rare orchid variety. The circle was closed by lawyers headed by J. P. Morgan. Davidson, nephew of James Guthrie, John Atchison, relative of the head of Patterson and Simone, publisher of the Straits Observer, John Logan, and lawyer Thomas Braddell, who became president in 1867. prosecutor general of the colony.

Close to the circle, but not included in it, were German and American merchants, some of whom were related to the top of Singapore society.

Singapore's "white" society borrowed its lifestyle from India. Mansions on Beechroad, country bungalows two miles out of town, stables with a dozen horses, the obligatory early morning ride, a bath and shave, an Anglo-Indian breakfast with the ladies who were awake by then, work (or service) in the city, where they went in a carriage brought to the door until 4: 30 or 5: 00 cricket or a walk along the esplanade, where the band played twice a week, return to the bungalow, have a rich lunch (in the Anglo-Indian style), read, talk or billiards, and go to bed at 10 pm (Cameron, 1865, p. 289-291). A huge number of servants, contempt for the "natives". If a few Anglicized and immensely rich Chinese (for example, the Russian freelance consul, the legendary Hu Ah Ke - "Mr. Whampoa" or Tan Kim Cheng, the son of the founder of a Singapore hospital) were allowed some kind of relief, then for Indians and those who flowed at least a drop of Indian blood, a strict rule applied: no communication. The children were sent to study in England. The fathers, on the other hand, spent most of their lives in the colony, never visiting England even for a short time, but always returning there in their old age. By the end of the 60s of the XIX century. in Great Britain, a kind of clan appeared from the founders of trading houses (or their descendants) and retired employees of the colony, united on January 31, 1868 in the Association

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Straits Settlement, whose first president was an associate of Raffles, Governor of Singapore in 1823-1826. John Crawfurd (Buckley, 1902, p. 771).

Ord's difficult relationship with Singaporean society was not only due to an almost instant dislike for each other. The main reason was that the Europeans of the Straits Settlement, who were insistent on separating the colony from India, but were accustomed to the "Indian" style of not very formal relations with the administration, which was also relatively low-paid, met with hostility the new governor's desire to introduce the standards of a crown colony.

Ord formed the Executive and Legislative Councils, i.e. introduced a new system of administration of Straits Settlement, now a crown colony. Mostly the administration itself (the Executive Council) It was made up of people who had held previous positions, but since most of them were approaching retirement age, it was clear that over the next few years they would be replaced by new people who were not connected with India, but who had experience in managing in other British colonies. This is what happened with the important post of colonial secretary, which was vacated in 1869. The Colonial Office rejected candidates from the local establishment and sought out James Birch, who served in Ceylon (Parkinson, 1960, p. 32-33) .2 The Legislative Council, an advisory body to the Governor, included Chief Justice P. B. Maxwell, several officials and military personnel, and representatives of major Singapore and Penang trading firms, led by the President of the Singapore Chamber of Commerce, W. H. M. Reed [Parkinson, 1960, p.19].

Ord was an authoritarian, self-important man, intolerant of the opinions of others, overly confident, who took any criticism as a personal insult. The Straits Settlement administration became more efficient and orderly under the Horde. But working under Ord was difficult, and the Colonial Office was bombarded with complaints about the governor's treatment of officials. Although London, following tradition, always officially supported Ord in his conflicts with subordinates, the ministry's staff was sympathetic and sympathetic to those who had the misfortune to serve under the governor [Cowan, 1961, p. 31].

Even worse was Sir Harry's relationship with the local establishment and the unofficial (non-official) members of the colony's Legislative Council who expressed their views. They were opposed to the Governor from the very beginning, and although Ord enforced his decisions by having a majority on the Council at the expense of his subordinate officials, he was under constant pressure and felt an atmosphere of persistent ill-will around him. And it wasn't just the new governor's character and the attitude of the "cream" of Singapore society, who were used to looking down on the poor and not made a brilliant career of employees of the East India Company. The local establishment, which had expected so much from the transfer of Straits Settlement to the crown, was disappointed. Instead of, as she had expected, reducing spending on far-flung Indian affairs and becoming more involved in the administration of the colony, she had to deal with tighter financial controls and increased bureaucracy in administrative matters. This was supplemented by a decline in trade in 1867 and 1868.

The Legislative Council began to protest against the construction of a new governor's residence and the purchase of a steamboat, so necessary in the conditions of Malay off-road conditions. And when Ord, at the final session of the Council of 1867, attacked the purses of the bourgeois Straits Settlement by suggesting that customs duties should be considered to patch up budget holes without the help of London, Singh-

2 The Colonial Secretary Lord Kimberley wrote in 1872: "I am beginning to doubt that the Straits Settlement has the right people for the service" (Hall, 1937, p. 240).

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Pura society exploded. The Straits Times published articles and cartoons mocking the Governor, and the Straits Settlement Association sent a memo to the Colonial Secretary accusing Ord of spending unnecessarily on the construction of a residence and seeking to disrupt the status of Singapore and Georgetown as free ports. The governor began to refute the accusations, drawing the attention of the minister (this caused a storm of indignation in Singapore) to the fact that Europeans pay disproportionately small taxes: on average, owners or co-owners of Singapore's largest firms pay 17 ft. st. a year with incomes of hundreds of thousands of pounds. However, the governor noted sarcastically, they have to pay an excise tax - six pence for each bottle of whiskey they consume in large quantities [Parkinson, 1960, p. 29-30]. On April 8, 1870, the business elite of Singapore society called a meeting (150 people were present), which adopted a resolution accusing Ord of unproductive spending money [One.., 1921, p. 417-419].

Alienation from his subordinates and society, and London's uncertain policy towards the Malay principalities, buried Ord's hopes of becoming an imperial builder on the borderlands. Sir Harry, based on his West African experience, believed that if he did not receive clear instructions concerning the local sultanates, he could act independently. And he did so without the help of veterans such as Colonel A. Anson, who was in charge of the Penang settlement, W. Reed, who was well acquainted with the affairs of the principalities of Johor and Perak, and the lawyer J. R. R. Tolkien. Davidson, whose business interests were largely tied to the Sultanate of Selangor.

During 1867-1868. Ord took actions that, in his opinion, should strengthen the influence of England on the peninsula. He declared claims to the islands at the mouth of the Dinding River in Perak, whose ownership was not clearly defined by the Anglo-Perak Treaty of 1826 [Treaties..., 1924, p. 23]. Lieutenant-Governor of Penang A. Anson at the end of 1867 began negotiations with the Perak representatives, but the unexpected appearance of the Horde accompanied by an armed escort at the mouth of the Perak River frightened the sultan, and the negotiations were interrupted [Anson, 1920, p.288].

Ord resumed negotiations with the Sultan of Kedah to clarify the terms of the treaty of 1800, initiated by his predecessor [Treaties..., 1924, p. 98-100], concerning the borders of the Province of Wellesley and trade. With the assistance of a major Chinese entrepreneur, Tan Kim Cheng, who was associated with the northern Malay principalities and served as Consul General of Siam in the Straits Settlement, the Sultan of Kedah, a vassal of Siam, arrived in Singapore in August 1867 and signed an agreement with the Horde [Song Ong Siang, 1923, p. 92-93]. But when the impatient Sir Harry included additional terms in the text of the treaty concerning the mutual extradition of criminals and those accused of crimes, the Sultan refused to sign it without the consent of the Siamese suzerain [Cowan, 1961, p.57-58].

In October 1867, the Singapore Chamber of Commerce complained about the monopolization of textiles, opium, and tobacco by the Sultan of Kelantan on the east coast. Ord immediately sent a letter to the Sultan, which was a kind of lecture on the benefits of free trade. After Ord's conversion to Bangkok, Siamese representatives appeared in Kelantan, a vassal of Siam, and visited Singapore in March 1868. They not only apologized for the behavior of the Sultan of Kelantan, but also signed a treaty drawn up by the Horde with Kedah, leaving the British governor confident of his success and waiting for a favorable reaction from London to his actions.

Ord also reported to London on his progress in resolving border disputes between Johor and Pahang. In April, 1868. Ord sent a letter to the Colonial Office. He believed that London should give him some sort of authority.

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the British Proconsul in Southeast Asia, and concluded: "Taking this opportunity to express my opinion, I believe that the subordination of the local states of the Peninsula to stronger and more civilized powers will benefit both those and others... I believe that extending our influence to the Peninsula will be extremely beneficial for Straits Settlement, and I will make every effort to promote this." by: Cowan, 1961, p. 60].

The governor presented a plan for dividing the Malay principalities between England and Siam, offering to recognize the suzerainty of the latter over the northern sultanates. : Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu. In August, 1868. Ord finally formulated his plan after being charmed by the reception he received from King Mongkut, who invited Sir Harry to watch the total solar eclipse with him in Pattani, the southern province of Siam. In 1869. Ord even advised the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to respond to the Sultan's letter to Terengganu via Bangkok, although the status of this sultanate was not clearly defined under the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1826 (Sheppard, 1949, p. 34).

Ord's ambitious plan collapsed when he first received a refusal from London to approve the agreement with Kedah, and then with Perak. The Colonial Secretary forbade Ord to take any unauthorized actions and warned the governor :" I am not inclined to approve of steps that increase the responsibility of Her Majesty's Government in the territories adjacent to the Straits Settlement "[quoted in Cowan, 1961, p. 65]. Ord hastened his plans. The Colonial Office still had a deep-rooted reluctance to actively interfere in Malay affairs since the days of the AOIC, and information on the situation on the peninsula was very, very limited. The Straits Settlement business community was just beginning to actively promote the need for intervention: the Suez Canal, which raised the importance of Singapore, was opened in 1869, and the struggle for tin mines in the western sultanates escalated in 1870-1873.

From late 1868 to March 1871, when Ord left Singapore for a year's leave (for treatment of a tropical fever, a reminder of his service in West Africa), he did little to deal with the affairs of the Malay principalities. The governor improved Singapore, took care of the telegraph line to India, received the first batch of Straits Settlemente civil service cadets with knowledge of Malay, and advised the government on the preparation of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1871, which secured the Dutch "right" to Sumatra in exchange for trade privileges for Great Britain in Dutch India. The Horde's contacts with the Malay rulers were limited to the ruler of the southern Malay principality of Johor, with whom the governor established friendly relations. Abu Bakar 3, who was educated at the mission school in Singapore, spoke fluent English, established close business ties with the European and Chinese leaders of the Straits Settlement, followed English advice, and set up a European-style residence in the new capital (since 1866). He went to Johor Bahru, played cricket and billiards, and kept racehorses. Ord admired him: "He is an English gentleman in his tastes and habits" (Andaya and Andaya, 1982, p. 152), and considered Abu Bakar "the only Raja in the entire world."-

3 Abu Bakar was descended from the Temenggung family, dignitaries of the Riau Sultanate (an archipelago between the Malacca Peninsula and Sumatra), which in the 18th century became the lot of Johor and Singapore. Abu Bakar's father, who had become rich in the gutta-percha trade and was widely attracted to the Chinese, became an ally of the British. In 1866, Abu Bakar visited England, was received by Queen Victoria, and on his return received from the British government the title of maharaja, which was an anachronism dating back to pre-Islamic times; moreover, in Malaya, rajas were the children of sultans who did not occupy the throne. In 1888, after the English conquest of Malaya, Abu Bakar received the long-awaited title of Sultan.

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luostrov and neighboring states, which governs in accordance with the practice adopted by civilized peoples " [Thio, 1967, p. 123].

Concentrating on the internal affairs of the colony, Straits Settlement, which was at odds with the business establishment, was deprived of information about the real situation in the Malay principalities due to its disregard for the sources of this information - veterans of the colonial service and entrepreneurs of Penang and Singapore, Ord overlooked the rapidly impending changes both in London, in his colony and on the border.

Despite the official doctrine of "non-interference", in the liberal Cabinet of U. The voices of supporters of colonial expansion began to sound after the death of John Gladstone (1868-1874): the era of the final (for the XIX century) division of the world was beginning. Its supporters included Lord Kimberley, the Colonial Secretary from 1870 to 1874, and the highest ranks of the ministry, who worked independently of cabinet changes: Robert Herbert, the permanent Secretary of the Ministry, and his deputy Robert Mead, who replaced Ord's patron, Frederick Rogers, in 1871 (Cowan, 1961, p. 155-156).

The changes in the Straits Settlement coincided with the era of increasing colonial expansion of European powers (Britain, France, and the Netherlands) in Southeast Asia. Singapore's commercial and strategic importance increased dramatically with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Singapore's imports in 1869 were about 32 million mala4, while in 1879 they were over 56 million MALA, and exports increased from almost 27 million MALA to more than 49 million MALA. [Bogaars, 1955, p. 100-101]. Expansionist sentiments towards the Malay principalities increased, which was associated with the desire to gain access to the ore resources of Malaya.

The main mineral wealth of the Malacca peninsula was tin, the main deposits of which were located in the western principalities: Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, which were located in the immediate vicinity of Penang and Malacca. Since the 1930s, the Chinese, who made up the majority of the Straits Settlement population due to the influx of immigrants, formed influential communities, the top of which not only engaged in trade, gambling and usury, but also invested in plantation farming and tin mining. Entrepreneurs in Singapore and Penang sent coolies arriving from overseas to the western principalities, whose numbers on the peninsula were constantly growing. Thus, in one of the tin-bearing regions of Selangor, Lukut, in the 20s of the XIX century there were 200 Chinese miners [Anderson, 1824, p.273], and 50 years later there were about 10 thousand of them [Purcell, 1949, p. 102]. There were only 400 Chinese miners in Perak in 1818 (Fermor, 1953, p. 22), and after the discovery of tin - bearing rocks in the Larut region in the 1950s and 60s, the number was 70,000 (Allen and Donnithorne, 1957, p. 150). Chinese workers formed artels based on the country principle, which were controlled by rich merchants of Straits Settlements, who headed secret societies or were closely associated with the latter.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, the development of the military industry in Europe and the United States has dramatically increased the demand for tin, and Malaya has become one of the world's main suppliers of this product. By the 1970s, Straits Settlement Capital had strengthened its position in tin mining by financing Chinese entrepreneurs in the mines. Chinese and British businessmen provided loans to Malay feudal lords and used their feuds to strengthen the positions of "their" sultans and representatives of the nobility [Khoo Kay Kim, 1972, p.111-111]. By the beginning of the 70s of the XIX century, the capital invested by Straits Settlement entrepreneurs in tin mining in the western principalities, with-

4 The Malay dollar (straits dollar), equal to the Spanish or Mexican silver dollar, was the most widely used currency in Southeast Asia in the 17th and 19th centuries. In the 70s of the XIX-early XX centuries. its rate ranged from one shilling and eightpence and a half to four shillings and sixpence.

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he put (according to various estimates) from 500 thousand to 1 million small dollars. [Cowan, 1961, p. 139]. Since 1871, the Singapore and Penang Chambers of Commerce, as well as meetings of prominent individuals in the colony, have bombarded the Governor and London with petitions and resolutions on the need to "restore order" in the principalities and open wide access to the capital of the Straits Settlement.

In Perak, the largest Western Malay principality, the tin-rich region of Larut became a bone of contention, where fighting broke out between secret societies, and the ruler of the region, Ibrahim, maneuvered, taking the side of the winning Chinese party each time. Penang merchants, who were behind the back of secret societies, constantly demanded intervention in the affairs of Larut [Tyurin, 1962, p. 125]. In 1871, the issue of succession to the throne became more complicated in Perak: after the death of the sultan, two contenders for the throne appeared. The nobility elected Ismail Sultan, but in 1872 another pretender, Abdullah, also declared himself sultan and, having entered into an alliance with one of the secret Chinese societies, intervened in Larut affairs [Swettenham, 1906, p. 123].

In Selangor, there were continuous feuds, as in Perak, intertwined with rivalries between secret societies. The main struggle broke out for the tin-bearing valley of the Klang River. The rivals-Raja Abdullah, who founded Kuala Lumpur, then a Chinese mining town, and Raja Mahdi-relied on various secret societies and the entrepreneurs behind them in Malacca and Singapore. In 1866, the Mahdi Raja took over Klang, but in 1870, the sultan's son-in-law, Prince Tengku Ziyautdin al-Qudin of Kedah, defeated the Mahdi and ousted him from Klang [Tyurin, 1962, p.126].

Fighting continued in Negri Sembilan, too. The largest estates, Sungei-Ujong and Rembau, were at war; in 1872, two contenders for the sultan's throne appeared, and in Sungei-Ujong, the highest leaders fought for the income from tin duties (Swettenham, 1906, p. 132).

Ord did not understand or did not want to understand the connection between the situation in the Western sultanates and the activities of secret societies in the Straits Settlement, because he was in a more than difficult relationship with the Perak and Selangor affairs of W. Reed and J. R. R. Tolkien. By Davidson. That is why he did not take advantage of the opportunity that presented itself to him in the summer of 1867, a few months after he took office. In July 1867, two secret societies clashed in Penang. The garrison intervened, and bloodshed was averted. At the beginning of August, when the garrison was sent to the Nicobar Islands, real battles unfolded on the streets of Georgetown, engulfing the entire island. The administration could not stop the riots for ten days, as a result of which many Chinese people were killed or injured; their homes and property were damaged [Anson, 1920, p. 278-279]. Ord immediately set out for Penang. He returned triumphant, having received London's approval for his vigorous efforts to restore order, but did not connect the Penang events with the struggle for Larut, only noting in one of the reports that the fight against secret societies was "completely beyond the power of the administration" [cit. by: Parkinson, 1960, p. 28]. And the governor did not delve into the incomprehensible "Chinese affairs" and squabbles, as he believed, small Malay princes and their entourage, focusing on more understandable and respectable, in his opinion, activities such as meeting with the king of Siam, participating in the Anglo-Dutch negotiations, trying to take over coordination English politics in Southeast Asia.

When Ord left for a year's leave in March 1871, Colonel Archibald Anson, acting Governor, humiliated for three years by a fellow student at the Woolwich Military Academy, a man who had never reached the rank of general, but who was full of ambition, decided to demonstrate his abilities and prove himself more competent in the administration of the colony. than the swaggering Ord. In March 1871, he proposed extending the jurisdiction of the colony's Supreme Court to all British subjects who had committed crimes in Malaya and "in the islands and islands of Malaya".

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territories of the Malay Archipelago that are not in the possession of Britain or any other European state" (Braddell, 1915, p. 16). This was, in Anson's view, to control the activities of the Chinese in the Malay principalities, since their leaders in Malacca and Penang were largely British citizens. In April, Anson set up the Committee on Local State Affairs, which pioneered the idea of appointing residents to the Malay Principalities (Cowan, 1961: 83-84). Although the Committee's work was frowned upon in London, where the position on Malaya was just beginning to be revised, Anson and the merchants of Penang and Malacca who were behind him continued to try to interfere in Malay affairs, using the eternal theme of piracy as an excuse.

In June 1871, a Chinese junk carrying food and other goods from Georgetown to Larout disappeared. Soon it was found at the mouth of the Selangor River, which was under the control of the Mahdi Raja (Winstedt, 1934, p. 21). After a brief scuffle, Straits Settlement police managed to free some of the crew and tow the junk to Penang. On July 4, 1871, the sloop-of-war Rinaldo appeared at the mouth of the Selangor River, which fired at the Raja Mahdi's fortification and landed troops who captured the guns of the fort abandoned by the Malays. Anson then sent Colonial Secretary James Burch to the Sultan of Selangor, Abdul Samad, with a demand to counter piracy and transfer control of the Selangor River Valley "to someone who will be trusted by the Straits Settlement administration" [cit. by: Cowan, 1961, p. 88]. By this man was meant the sultan's son-in-law Tengku Kudin, who established connections with the English administration, created a squad of sepoys under the command of European officers, gave English names to the streets in his residence, was no stranger to sherry, and got a pack of thoroughbred dogs, i.e.e. He behaved like an English gentleman [Andaya and Andaya, 1982, p. 151]. The elderly sultan accepted the English demands, but Anson did not achieve the desired result. Abdul Samad, who retired to the south of Selangor, to the Langat River valley, got rid of his worries and answered each of his many rival relatives: "Am I right?" - "Absolutely right" (Swettenham, 1895, p.104).

Although Tengku Kudin formally received the Sultan's consent to control the Selangor River valley, and the British began to refer to him as the "viceroy", considering that the Sultan gave him a kind of regency, transferring, as often happened with them, European (or at best Indian) concepts to the Malay world, the prince of Kedah he could not master the situation in Selangor, and the sultan was not going to fulfill the agreement imposed on him under the guns of British gunboats.

In March, 1872. Ord returned to Singapore. While in London, he tried to convince the Colonial Office of the need for active intervention in Malay affairs, but was rejected. "The minister, with a certain sympathy for my statements," Ord testified, "spoke out in the strongest terms against the extension of the governor's rights in relation to the local principalities... With such instructions that tied my hands, I returned to the colony at the beginning of 1872" [Further Correspondence..., 1875]. But the Straits Settlement bourgeoisie, taking Anson's actions as a sign that the administration was ready to intervene in "Malay affairs," began to demand drastic measures from Ord. And since the governor, bound by his instructions, could not do so, a new barrage of accusations against him broke out in the local press and in endless petitions.

The main accusation against Ord was that Tengku Kudin, with whom many of the colony's rich people had business ties, had failed to establish control over Selangor. Raja Mahdi fled to Sumatra, and then appeared in Johor, from where in July 1872 he went to the inner regions of Selangor and resumed the struggle with Tengku Kudin [Winstedt, 1934, p. 26; Wilkinson, 1923, p. 151-152].-

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Ord's attempts to mediate between the warring parties were unsuccessful. In August 1872, the village of Kuala Lumpur, controlled by the head of the Chinese community, Yap Ah Loi, an ally of Tengku Kudin, was besieged. A group of sepoys under the command of European (Italian and Dutch) officers tried to escape, but a Malay guide led them into the jungle, where the group was destroyed (Swettenham, 1895, p. 103-111; Middlebrook, 1951, p. 49-50). Kuala Lumpur was captured by the Mahdi and his supporters.

The fall of Kuala Lumpur caused a storm of indignation in the Straits Settlement, especially among the merchants of Malacca. The fact is that after the events of 1871, the latter began to invest in tin mining in the Klang River Valley (where Kuala Lumpur was located), where the Chinese population increased to 12 thousand people, and tin production doubled (Cowan, 1961, p. 106). When Tengku Kudin and Yap A Loi were defeated and control of the Klang Valley passed to the anti-British party, the Malacca and Singapore Chambers of Commerce began to bombard the colony administration with petitions demanding intervention on the side of Tengku Kudin, as previously promised. A campaign broke out again in the local press, accusing Ord of inaction and failure to fulfill a promise to support Kudin (which the governor never gave).

Under the circumstances, Ord did his best. He went to the east coast of Malaya, to the Sultanate of Pahang, and agreed with the ruler of this principality to help Kudin. At the end of 1872, Pahang troops entered Selangor, in March 1873, together with Yap A Loy detachments, they drove the Mahdi out of Kuala Lumpur, and in November-from the coast. Raja Mahdi fled to Perak and found refuge at the court of one of the pretenders to the throne of Perak (Middlebrook, 1951, p.79-80; Linehan, 1936, p. 97-99). In October, 1872. Ord visited the west coast, where he tried to settle relations between the warring factions in Negri Sembilan and gain advantages for the Malacca merchants, and also met with the Sultan of Selangor, Abdul Samad, who, as usual, agreed to all the demands, but did not intend to fulfill them.

Despite the apparent success that Ord reported to London, the situation in Selangor and Negri Sembilan remained the same: Tengku Kudin only nominally controlled Selangor; on the Linggi River, which brought tin from the interior of Negri Sembilan, there were still customs posts of feuding feudal lords; investments in tin mining did not pay off so much. fast, as the Straits Settlement men would have liked. As a result, Ord was subjected to a new wave of crushing criticism from the colony's Chambers of commerce and press.

Ord's last year of service was marred by events in the largest sultanate on the west coast, Perak, which provided new fodder for attacks on the governor. In the autumn of 1872, a new struggle broke out in Larut between Chinese secret societies for control of the tin mines, in which Penang merchants took part [Correspondence... 16 Oct. 1872]. The struggle spilled out into the streets of Singapore, where in November and December 1872, battles between secret societies raged, with difficulty suppressed by a small garrison [Correspondence... 17 Dec. 1872]. As before, in Selangor, Ord tried to resolve the situation in Larut without open intervention, which he did not have the consent of London. In February 1872, he banned the supply of weapons from Penang to Perak and sent the gunboat Bumblebee to cruise along the Perak coast [Parkinson, 1960, p. 89-90]. In July 1873, the Penang Police Chief, Captain T. Speedy, entered the service of the Lord of Larut and went to India to hire sepoys (Gullick, 1953, p.32-33). On August 10, Ord gathered in Georgetown the leaders of the warring secret societies, the lord of Larut Ibrahim and the pretender to the throne of Perak, Abdullah. But none of the parties was going to fulfill the agreements reached [Anson, 1920, p. 322]: the secret societies resumed

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Abdullah removed Ibrahim from power over Larut, Ibrahim did not comply, and the strife in Perak broke out with renewed vigor [Winstedt and Wilkinson, 1934, p. 88].

Ord called another gunboat to Penang, officially approved the actions of Speedy, who arrived in Larut in September 1873 with 110 sepoys from India [Gullick, 1953, p. 34], and quite vigorously began to fight piracy in the waters of Penang and Wellesley Province [Swettenham, 1906, p.125-126]. In September 1873, British gunboats destroyed the Chinese secret society's fortifications at the mouth of the Larut River, and Captain Speedy and his sepoys established control over the interior of Larut [Winstedt and Wilkinson, 1934, p. 80; Gullick, 1953, p. 34-35].

Ord's term as governor was coming to an end, and he didn't regret it. The truce between him and his critics, which had been established at the beginning of 1873, ended on September 15. On this day, a meeting of local elites was held in Singapore, which adopted a resolution protesting against the decree adopted by the Legislative Council under pressure from the governor to control Chinese immigration. "It is clear," Ord wrote to London,"that this meeting is the work of Mr. Reed and his supporters, who here and at home (in London - V. T.) are tirelessly opposed to all the initiatives of the local administration." And continued: "Traders here are a group that has little interest in anything other than their business. Most of them openly say that they came only to make money, and some large companies do not want to take any part in public affairs at all... And as soon as someone assures them that a tyrannical and despotic administration encroaches on their rights and privileges, a meeting is immediately organized, most of the participants of which have no idea about the essence of the issue being discussed " [cit. by: Parkinson, 1960, p. 103-104].

November 2, 1873 Ord left Straits Settlement after completing his activities in Her Majesty's colonial service, and Major General Andrew Clarke arrived in Singapore on 4 November with instructions to "restore order" in the Malay principalities. Clark was a man of the same psychological type as Ord: authoritarian and tough. But he had one advantage: London decided to begin the conquest of Malaya, and the society of the Imperial Frontier colony forgave Sir Andrew for not liking Sir Harry.

list of literature

Tyurin V. A. Conquest of Malaya by England, Moscow, 1962.
Allen G. C. and Donnithorne A. G. Western Enterprise in Indonesia and Malaya: A Study in Economic Development. L., 1957.

Andaya B. W. and Andaya L. Y. A History of Malaysia. L. and Basingstoke, 1982.

Anderson J. A Political and Commercial Considerations relative to the Malayan Peninsula and the British Settlements in the Straits of Malacca. Prince of Wales Island, 1824.

Anson A. E. About Others and Myself, 1745 - 1920. L., 1920.

Bogaars G. Effect of the Opening of the Suez Canal on the Trade and Development of Singapore // JMBRAS. Vol. 28, pt. 1. 1955.

Braddell R. St. J. The Law of the Straits Settlements. Singapore, 1915.

Buckley C. B. An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore. Vol. II. Singapore, 1902.

Cameron J. Our Tropical Possessions in Malayan India. L., 1865.

Correspondence relating to Native States in the Peninsula (Nov. 1872 - Mar. 1874) // PP. L., 1874.

Cowan C. D. Nineteenth Century Malaya. The Origin of British Political Control. L., 1961.

Fermor L. L. Report upon the Mining Industry in Malaya. Kuala Lumpur, 1953.

Further Correspondence relating to Native States in the Peninsula (Nov. 1874 - July 1875). 2 Aug. 1874 // PP. L., 1875.

Gullick J. M. Captain Speedy of Larut // JMBRAS. Vol. 26. Pt. 2. 1953.

Hall M. L. The Colonial Office. L., 1937.

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Khoo Kay Kim. The Western Malay States 1850 - 1873. The Effects of Commercial Development on Malay Politics. Kuala Lumpur, 1972.

Linehan W. A. History of Pahang //JMBRAS. Vol. 14. Pt. 2. 1936.

Man H. Supplements to Correspondence Regarding the Comparative Merits of British and Native Administration of India. Calcutta, 1868.

McNair J. F. A. Perak and the Malays; "Sarong and Kris". L., 1878.

McNair J. F. A and Bayliss W.D. Prisoners of Their Own Warders. L., 1899.

Middlebrook S. M. Yap Ah Loy // JMBRAS. Vol. 24. Pt. 2, 1951.

One Hundred Years of Singapore / Ed. by Makepeace W., Broode G. E., Braddell R. St. L., 1921.

Parkinson C. N. British Intervention in Malaya, 1867 - 77. L., 1960.

Purcell V. The Chinese in Malaya. N. Y. -Toronto, 1949.

Sheppard M. C. A Short History of Trengganu // JMBRAS. Vol. 22. Pt. 3. 1949.

Song Ong Siang. One Hundred Years' History of the Chinese in Singapore. L., 1923.

Swettenham F. A. Malay Sketches. L., 1895.

Swettenham F. A. British Malaya. An Account of the Origin and Progress of British Influence in Malaya. L., 1906.

Thio E. British Policy towards Johore: from Advice to Control // JMBRAS. Vol. 40. Pt. 1. 1967.

Treaties and Engagements Affecting the Malay States and Borneo / Ed. by Maxwell W. G. and Gibson W. S. L., 1924.

Wilkinson R. J. A History of the Peninsular Malays, with Chapters on Perak and Selangor. Singapore, 1923.

Winstedt R. O. A History of Selangor // JMBRAS. Vol. 12. Pt. 3. 1934.

Winstedt R. O. and Wilkinson R. J. A History of Perak // JMBRAS. Vol. 12. Pt. 1. 1934.

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

JMBRAS - The Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. L. and Singapore.

PP - Parliamentary Papers. L.

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