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were too poor, but that he was then going to commence to collect them.

In 1862 Sultan Ali was in debt to a trader and moneylender of Singapore of the name of Shellapah Chitty for the sum of 53,600 Spanish dollars, bearing interest at 15 per cent., but succeeded in borrowing from him a further snm of 15,000 Spanish dollars, at the rate of 24 per cent.* As security Sultan Ali mortgaged his right under the treaty. of 1824† to receive the sum of 20,000 Spanish dollars if he removed from Singapore and transferred his residence to his own State. He also gave Shellapah Chitty the right to sell Muar to the British Government or the Tumonggong of Johore or any other power or party and apply the purchase money in reduction of the debt.

By one of the covenants in this mortgage, Sultan Ali covenanted that he had done nothing to hinder the recovery of the 20,000 Spanish dollars under the treaty of 1824, but when shortly afterwards he did remove from Singapore, and endeavoured to recover the sum, it was found that he was unable to hand over the house and land which had been assigned to him as a residence under the treaty. He had issued leases and otherwise disposed of a very large part of the land, so that he was unable to fulfil his part of the bargain. The result was that neither he nor his mortgagee ever received the 20,000 dollars.§

Sultan Ali's next effort at governing his country was the agreement with Baboo Ramsamy of the 31st October, 1868, under which the latter was to act on Sultan Ali's behalf and collect the revenue from Muar to which the Sultan was entitled. ||

The power of attorney given to Ramsamy and the letter which he addressed to the Government of the Straits Settlement on the 22nd November, 1877, are printed in the Memorial.¶

* Memorial, page 452.
Memorial, page 518.
|| Memorial, page 489.

† Article 6, page 263.
§ Memorial, page 312.
¶ Pages 486 and 489.

It is worthy of note, as showing the freedom with which Sultan Ali signed documents of which he cannot in the least have understood the purport, that this power of attorney, under which Baboo Ramsamy was to administer Muar, and under which he says that he established a police court in the territory, is nothing but a common form, English power of attorney for appointing an estate agent.

In 1872 Sultan Ali executed a mining concession giving James Guthrie Davidson the exclusive mining rights, in Muar for five years in return for paying him one-tenth of the produce.*

The above incidents show that Sultan Ali's views on the subject of governing Muar were limited to efforts at extracting money. It is clear that he would have signed any or every document that was put before him, provided only that he saw his way thereby to obtaining a little

money.

By this time Johore, under the rule of Maharajah Abu Bakr, was becoming a prosperous State, very different from the wretched condition prevailing in Muar. The Memorial represents the Maharajah as at all times the enemy of Sultan Ali. This is not true so far as regards the later years of Sultan Ali's life. He was undoubtedly sore at getting so little under the treaty of 1855, and had avoided all relations with the Maharajah since that date, but in 1875 a reconciliation with Abu Bakr was effected by the Governor of the Straits Settlements at the request of Sultan Ali.† With Tunku Allum, his eldest son, on the other hand, Sultan Ali had long since quarrelled.

The Group of Studer Concessions.

The above passages give an adequate description of Sultan Ali's position as ruler of Muar in 1875, the date when he received for execution from Mr. Keun, the clerk in the employment of the Oriental Bank who acted as † See Annex 5, page 102.

* Annex 4, page 99.

his agent at Singapore, the draft concession conferring upon Major Studer the extensive tract of land which the latter was to select anywhere within the territory of Muar. Sultan Ali executed it, of course, forthwith, as he would have executed any other document which cost him nothing, and gave promise of an income.

The passages at the bottom of page 2 and at the top of page 3 of the Memorial would lead one to infer that the negotiations with Keun which culminated in the preliminary concession of the 24th December, 1875, were Major Studer's first dealings in land in Muar. The corresponding passages in the "Original Memorial to the Department of State" would also lead to the same inference.

It is doubtful, however, whether this was

really the case.

On the 16th October Sultan Ali had already executed two concessions of land in Muar on behalf of Major Studer's clerk, R. de Souza,* one for 1 square mile and one for 2 miles square, i.e., 4 square miles. miles. Both these concessions exhibit the same peculiar features as Major Studer's grant of the 24th December. For instance, the land is measured in geographical miles, and not in statute miles; in fact, their language is, mutatis mutandis, identical with Major Studer's own grant. In his letter to Mr. W. Maxwell of the 9th January, 1894, Major Studer says he himself drew his concession,† and in the Memorial to the State Department he says: "I prepared the draft of title myself, “and submitted it to him." If this is so, the inference is irresistible that Major Studer prepared the De Souza grants as well, for it is impossible that by chance two men should independently have used such a remarkable form of grant. The fact that both these grants to De Souza were witnessed by J. S. Burlingham, Major Studer's partner in the undertaking, and that at a subsequent date the De Souza grants were made over to Major Studer * See Memorial, pages 499 and 507.

up

† Memorial, page 178.

Memorial, page 93.

for a nominal consideration* strengthens the probability that he was in reality the interested party throughout.

The concessions to himself and to his clerk De Souza were by no means the only concessions from Sultan Ali, for which Major Studer was responsible. There were also the concession to Burlingham, his partner, of which the text is not given in the Memorial, and grants to three other United States citizens behind which Major Studer makes it quite clear in his original memorial to the State Department that he was the moving spirit. These were the grants to A. C. Litchfield, who was United States consul at Calcutta, H. S. Loring, who was United States consul at Hong Kong, and H. A. Fenuer.† There was also the concession in favour of Major Studer's son, then a boy of five, but this he does not mention.

In addition to these, there was a concession to Joseph Lind in precisely the same form and language as that to Loring.§

After obtaining his preliminary concession in December, 1875, Major Studer allowed a year to elapse before doing anything further, but he then set out on a visit of inspection to Muar in order to select his 45 square miles of land. He first went to Malacca, and had an interview with Sultan Ali: from him a passport was obtained, directed to all princes, penghulus and civilians, as Major Studer was "desirous to have a view of my territory."||

He then went up the Muar River and explained his object to the Tumonggong, who, on the 18th December, gave him a paper admitting that he (Major Studer) had received a passport from Sultan Ali and intended to clear land in Muar.¶

This document from the Tumonggong was probably of much the same effect from the point of view of Malay law, as the grant signed by Sultan Ali in December 1875.

* Memorial, page 479.
Memorial, page 478.
Memorial, page 493.

† Memorial, page 107.
§ Memorial, pages 505 and 513.
Memorial, page 494.

It was a concurrence by the Tumonggong in the permission to clear jungle land in Muar granted by Sultan Ali to Major Studer.

The difference between them is that the Tumonggong's paper is in accordance with the local system, being the work of a Malay, whereas the paper signed by the Sultan is in Western form, unintelligible to an uneducated inhabitant of the Malay Peninsula, being the handiwork of Major Studer himself.

After his interview with the Tumonggong, Major Studer located his land on the shores of the Muar River, incidentally taking the opportunity to set out his boundaries so as to include not only the 36 square geographical miles (45 square miles) provided for in the Sultan's grant, but an additional 33 square geographical miles (41 square statute miles), raising the total area of the land he claimed to nearly 90 square miles. His activities, however, went far beyond setting aside 90 square miles of Muar for himself. He located a grant of 9 square geographical miles for his partner, J. S. Burlingham, and a series of other grants, of which the details will be found in Mr. Chamberlain's Memorandum,* making, with those to his partner and himself, a total of 110 square geographical miles. Major Studer also located the Fenner concession of 64 square miles, as he himself says on page 107 of the Memorial, the aggregate area of the grants he arranged comes to a grand total of 174 geographical square miles out of the territory of this little State. How much of the State was left may be seen by looking at the maps annexed to the Memorial.

If

Major Studer cannot have examined the land very carefully when he located the grants. The western portion of his own grant consisted almost entirely of swamp, and that to Mr. that to Mr. Loring lay to some extent outside the boundaries of Muar, while the four

* Memorial, page 395.

† Memorial, pages 614 and 616.

See the boundaries as described on page 514 of the Memorial.

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