The final cession of Sarawak to Great Britain is satisfactory
in itself, but the method of it is less happy. All that matters is the interest of the native population, which after a hundred years of mainly benevolent autocracy of the Brooke family has remained without education and without a shred of self-government, but also —to be frank—without any visible desire for either. That the lot of the mixture of Dyaks, Malays, Chinese and the rest will be better in every way under Crown Colony government, with progress in these fields as its essential principle, can hardly be doubted, and since the Rajah, who, with advancing years, desires to hand over his responsibilities, it would be clearly wrong for the British Govern- ment to decline them. But it would plainly have been more satis- factory. if the two bodies in Sarawak in which there is some sem- blance of representation had endorsed the change decisively. How- ever, the two British M.P.s, one Labour and one Conservative, who are at present in Sarawak are satisfied that the general wish is for cession, and now that cession is an accomplished fact further controversy would be beside the point. I am glad to know that the proposed arrangement by which £r,000,000 from the Sarawak Treasury would have been placed in trust to provide an income in the first instance for the Rajah and his family, and after that be devoted to private purposes, has been abandoned. The Rajah him- self, his brother, Mr. Bertram Brooke, and his nephew, Mr. Antony Brooke, will be well provided for, but by way of annual allowances, not by the segregation of any capital sum.
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