Krian in History

PINANG. Tuanku Daee. (From the Pinang Gazette, January 29.) After the mission to Quedah, noticed in a former paper, it appears, the Authorities received a communication from Tunku Daee requesting that Mr Lewis might again be sent so that his chiefs, whom he had assembled, might have the subject explained and hear the intention and determination of the East India Company from the lips of the envoy himself. At the same time the Tunku addressed Mr Nairne soliciting his assistance and advice as a friend in the matter. Accordingly the Governor despatched the steamer Hooghly, on Saturday evening last, with both gentlemen on board, and the conference having ended the steamer returned to the harbour on Monday morning. The present question between the parties, so far as we are enabled to understand it, is, as follows. The disputed piece of land is called the Krian, situate between the Kwala Krian---the southern boundary of Province Wellesley---and Kwala Kurrau---which according to the Quedah people, is the northern boundary of Pera. It stretches along the coast for about 30 miles, contains a population of about a thousand Malayan families, the land is of superior quality, well cultivated, at present covered with the most luxuriant paddie crops and yields an annual revenue of about two thousand dollars. Previously to the Siamese invasion of Quedah in 1821---the expulsion of the King from his territory, ---the heartless abandonment of their Ally by the East India Company, and their Treaty with Siam in 1826---Krian was under the government of Quedah and was a part of that Kingdom. Soon after these events and when Quedah was in possession of Siam, Pera took advantage of the confusion prevailing, sought to extend her northern limits from Kwala Kurrau to Kwala Krian, and solicited the intervention and assistance of the East India Company in the matter. In compliance with this requisition a Company's Officer and 40 Sepoys were despatched in two Brigs to Pera in the year 1827, or thereabouts, and were received by the King, the Rajah Mudah, the Rajah Bindahara and other high officers, with whom they resided for about three weeks, when it was finally settled between them without reference to Quedah that the northern boundaries of Pera extended as far as the Kwala Krian, and that thenceforward the district of that name should form a part of the Pera territory. Immediately thereafter the Pera people took possession. When the Siamese restored the King of Quedah to his country in 1842, Quedah soon afterwards expelled Pera from Krian, which it has since retained. Pera made frequent unsuccessful efforts to recover herself, and at length applied to her Ally the East India Company to put her again in possession-hence the present dispute. We noticed in our last number that the East India Company have a Treaty with Quedah, dated June 1800; another with Siam, dated June 1826; and a third with Pera, dated October 1826.---It is on the two last that the Indian Government attempts to justify its present conduct, professing to be actuated only by the principle of maintaining good faith with Allies. The power of the East India Company is again to be thrown into the scale against Quedah. The Ben. gal Government have given peremptory orders to expel her from Krian and replace Pera in possession of that district. The arguments of our local Authorities, in favour of that proceeding, are, so far as we have learned and are able to comprehend them, to the effect: first---That by the Siamese conquest of Quedah and the expulsion of the King the Treaty of 1800 became a dead letter; second---That by the Treaty with Siam of 1826, Quedah is acknowledged to be a possession of Siam, and by the consent of that Power, obtained in 1827, the East India Company settled the northern boundary of Pera---then a subject of dispute between Siam and Pera---to be the Kwala Krian; third---That during all the time the Siamese exercised direct authority over Quedah, and during the rule of their Governor (a Malay) Tunku Amun (i. e. immediately before the King of Quedah, the present Tunku Daee's father, was restored,) Pera continued in undisputed possession of Krian, and fourth---that Quedah on the restoration of the old King in 1842 was still merely a dependency of Siam, therefore the seizure of Krian by it was a direct violation of the 14th article of the Treaty of Siam, and that as the East India Company prides itself upon its good faith with all its allies, it must maintain its character with Pera, and consequently if the Quedah people will not withdraw quietly, the Company will again point its guns against them and compel them to do so nolens volens. Quedah in reply states: first---That Quedah was an independent country in possession of the Malays for centuries before the East India Company took possession of Pinang; second---That in 1786 when Pinang was ceded to the East India Company, Quedah was acknowledged then to be altogether independent of Siamese interference; third---That the cession of that Island was made to, and received by, the East India Company upon the express understanding of support and protection against Ava and Siam---powerful and relentless enemies of Quedah;* fourth---That their confidence in the good faith of the East India Company was abused by assistance not having been afforded them during the Siamese invasion of 1821-22; fifth---That the 2nd article of the Treaty of 1800 was infringed by the East India Company not having promptly repelled the Siamese at the time when that power threatened Pulo Pinang and partially invaded the opposite coast---demanding the fugitive King's body dead or alive; sixth---That the unhallowed alliance which the East India Company entered into with the Siamese in 1826 is, as far as it respects Quedah, a direct violation of the law of Nations, a gross infringement of the obligations the Company had previously come under, and is based on principles the most cruel and unjust to the oppressed Malays; seventh---That as the late King of Quedah took refuge in Pinang at the express invitation of the Governor his confidence was again shamefully abused by the hard-hearted banishment the East India Company forced upon him in compliance with the requisition of their new Ally; eight---That the Malays having been expelled Quedah after twice re-possessing themselves of their country, by the East India Company, and having been opposed by that power in all their efforts to drive out the Siamese and being now reduced to a vassal of Siam, it is insulting a weak and powerless people to negotiate with them on the subject of the Pera boundary; ninth ---That in 1842 when restored to their country by the Siamese they were ordered to repossess themselves of all their former territories, and that they are prepared with proof---both recorded and traditional---that Krian, for ages before and at the time of the Siamese invasion formed a part of Quedah, and tenth---That Siam denies ever having consented to Krian being given up to Pera that when applied to by the English Siam declared herself ignorant of the boundaries of Quedah but requires Tunku Daee to retain his rightful limits and that consequently the Tunku is placed in a position either to incur the displeasure of a savage and blood thirsty Master, or to give offence to a fickle and faithless party. We do not intend in this days issue to make any additional remarks to those already offered in our two previous numbers upon the present question, but we may in a future paper give a succinct history of the connection of Quedah with the East India Company and the results which have arisen therefrom. We have no desire to hamper the Government in its negotiations they may be based on the most anxious desire to act justly by all Parties, but we can allow no consideration to blind us to the fact that the existing difficulty is the natural consequence of that crooked Policy which has been the cause of so much blood shed and a loss of both money and character. Suffice it however to say for the present we deem it a matter greatly and ever to be regretted that the East India Company should by the Treaty of Siam of 1826 and the subsequent banishment of their old Ally the King of Quedah---have lowered themselves to a level with a contemptable Power like Siam, and cast a blot upon the British character never to be effaced. * So little did the Governor General in Council, at the breaking out of the Burmese War, know about these States that he was easily prevailed upon to believe that it would be desirable to propitiate Siam with the sacrifice of so insignificant a friend or Ally as Quedah---if indeed the Treaty of 1800 was ever brought his notice---in fact, we have good grounds for believing that his negotiator was not aware of the existence of the Quedah Treaty of 1800 till after 1826! † Some of our readers may remember the following among other observations on the same subject of an old Servant of the East India Company high in office at the Island about 20 years ago when the Siamese Treaty was first published in the Straits. "How far," says he, " we have any right to bind the King of Quedah, from attempting the recovery of his Dominions we will not stop to discuss; but we challenge any person to produce from the many cases that purposely refrained from noticing the efforts made by the East India Company to coerce Quedah into their wishes by stopping the subsidy since the beginning of 1844. We believe the barbarian Court of Bankok, in expressing its opinion on this point to the Governor of the Straits stigmatized the act as shabby and altogether unworthy of the East India Government. The style of a communication from one of the Straits Authorities to Quedah on the same subject, is strongly akin to that of the Bankok Court as drawn by Colonel Burney. The Portuguese Consul at Bankok," says he, "once gave great offence to the King, by appealing to the Pera King's engagement with the Governor of Goa for immunity from some demand that was made against a Portuguese trader; he was told that he ought to have appealed to the benevolence of the King, and not to any written engagement." Fortunately for Tunku Daee, the Siamese Chiefs, who had come down to settle about the extension of our boundary at Kota, were present when the Steamer arrived. We believe the Tunku's reply is to effect that as the East India Company are determined to replace Pera in Krian, and as Quedah is powerless against the English, the Pungulu in charge will be desired to retire before the 5th proximo, accompanied with a request that the Governor would use his influence in behalf of the Quedah inhabitants there, who are all poor people, to secure for them their crops of paddie before being compelled to leave. The Siamese alleged they had not come down on the matter of Kota, but to call Tunku Daee to the Court of Ligore on other business-a mere pretext on finding how matter respecting Krian had advanced. It appears none of the Chiefs either of Quedah or Pera will be present at Krian on the 5th proximo. If so the Governor we presume, does not intend to go down in person with a Company's steamer and a British man of war to meet a few Pangulus and some naked Malays. Since writing the above we learn that the Steamer has again been sent to Quedah---Mr Wilson the deputy Superintendent of Province Wellesley being the envoy on this occasion. The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (1835-1869), 17 February 1848, Page 4