05 March 2012

THE SULTAN OF SELANGOR


H.H. the Sultan.— The President of the Selangor State Council is His Highness Alae'eddin Suleiman Shah, C.M.G., the Sultan of Selangor.

A son of the late Raja Muda Musa, he was born on September 30, 1864. He succeeded his grandfather, the late Sultan, H.H. Sir Abdul Samad, K.C.M.G., and came to the throne on February 17, 1898.

He was installed as Sultan in November, 1903. He was educated in Malay, and is a man of enlighten-ment. He married his cousin, H.H. Tengku Mahrom, daughter of H.H. Tengku Udin, and by her had two sons, Tengku Musa and Tengku Bahdur Shah, who are now being educated at the Victoria Institute, Kuala Lumpor.

The Sultan has a palace in Klang, provided by the Government, but prefers to dwell in a private house. His Highness's staff consists of  Secretary, Inche .A.bdul Razak bin Haji Abdul Gani ; Penggawa, Haji Ahmad bin Baba ; Maharaja Hela, Haji Abdul Gani ; Shah Bandar, Haji Ali ; Bantara Kiri, Mohamed Amin bin Wan Mohamed Syed : and Bentara Kanan, Soloh bin Wan Mohamed Syed. The British Resident. Mr. H. Conway Belfield, the British Resident of Selangor, came to the Malay Slates in 1884, Kuala Lumpor was mostly dense jungle, with a brick house in the vicinity, attap buildings for Government offices and courts, with a Chinese vegetable garden on the site of the existing cricket ground, and a town composed of a few Chinese houses.

The Acting British Resident then was Mr. (now Sir) J. Rodger, the present Governor of the Gold Coast, and Sir Frank Swettenham the Acting Resident of Perak. Mr. Belfield is the head of an old Devonshire family, and was educated at Rugby and at Oxford.

He trained for the Bar, and in 1877 he passed his final examination and entered the Inner Temple. His first appointments on coming East were to the magisterial bench at Kuala Lumpor and to the collectorship of land revenue in the same town, and Inspector of Schools for the whole State. In addition to these duties he also acted as Chief Magistrate and Judge of the High Court for the whole of Selangor, and also Commissioner of Lands. After six years' continuous residence in the State he returned to England on leave, and on returning to the native States he was appointed Senior Magistrate, Perak. he held the position until the four States were federated in 1896, when he was appointed to the Federal office of Commissioner of Lands and Mines.

In the same year he became Chief Examiner in the Malay language, and in 1897 filled the position of Acting British Resident, Selangor. He occupied this post intermittently for different periods til! April, 1901, when he received the appointment of British Resident of Negri Sambilan. Owing to his services being required continually in Selangor, however, he never assumed the duties.

He was given his present appointment whilst he was in England on leave in 1902. Mr. Belfield visited Borneo on a special mission for Government in 1905. He has travelled extensively in the native States, is the author of an excellent publication on the country, and an authority on Malay matters. He is a landowner and Justice of the Peace in Devonshire, a keen all-round sports-man, though unattracted by golf, and a member of the Junior Carlton, Ranelagh, and Royal Automobile Clubs. Mr. Robert Campbell Grey, Secretary to the Resident of Selangor, is at present acting as British Resident of the Negri Sambilan.

He entered the service of the State of Perak in 1888 as a junior officer, and a year later was appointed Assistant Magistrate of Kinta. After having held other Government posts, he became, in 1895, Assistant Secretary to the Government of that State. In 1897 he was appointed District Officer at Ulu Selangor, being subse-quently transferred in the same capacity to Kuala Kaupar in Perak. In 1902 Mr. Grey acted as District Officer of Kinta, the chief mining district of the Federated Malay States, and in 1903 he was appointed Secretary to the Resident of Selangor.

Mr. Grey acted as Secre-tary to the Resident of Perak in 1904, and for a short time carried out the duties of British Resident in addition to those of Secretary. After having occupied his substantive post in Selangor for some eighteen months, Mr. Grey was, in November, igo6, appointed to act as British Resident of the Negri Sambilan.

The Raja Muda, Raja Laut bin Sultan Muhammed, son of the late Sultan Muhammed, was at one time Penghulu of Kuala Lumpor and a member of the Kuala Lumpor Sanitary Board. He was made Raja Muda of Selangor in 1903, and also a member of the State Council. He resides in the capital, and is greatly interested in the Malay agricultural settlement there, being chairman of the com-mittee of management.

Raja Haji Bot, another member of the State Council, is a son of Raja Jamaat, ruler of Lukot, and resides at Klang.

Raja Hassan. — Raja Hassan, a son of Raja Abdullah, was born in Klang, and is the Penghulu of the district. He is a member of the Klang Sanitary Board and lakes great interest in public matters.

Saiyid Mashhor bin Saiyid Muhammad, another member of the Council, resides at Klang.

Mr. Qeorge Camming, of Kuala Lumpor, is one of the best known and most popular residents of Selangor. He came out to the Federated Malay States in 1888, and his first appointment was on Messrs. Hill & Rath-borne's coffee plantation in the Negri Sambilan, one of the pioneer plantations in the States. Four years later he entered the service of the Straits Trading Company in Kuala Lumpor, and after remaining with them for four years he commenced mining on his own account. At present he owns two mines — one at Salak South, near Sungei Besi, and the other at Rawang. During the two years the former mine has been worked considerable develop-ments have been effected and excellent results obtained. With 300 coolies employed, together with a small hauling plant, the mine has been proved to a depth of 140 feet ; but now that it has turned out to be so extensive additional capital is required, and Mr. Gumming intends to float the concern as a limited liability com-pany with a view to developing it on a large scale. Up-to-date plant will then be introduced, and the opinion is expressed by experts that the mine will prove to be one of the richest in that part of the country. About four years ago Mr. Gumming was appointed to the Selangor Council of State, being the first European unofficial member to sit on that body. He is also president of the Miners' Association. A keen sportsman and the owner of several race-horses, he was one of the founders of the Turf Club, of which he is now vice-president.

Mr. Chan Sow Lin. -One of the pioneers among the Chinese community in the State of Selangor is Mr. Chan Sow Lin, a gentleman of good birth, who, after being brought up in China, came to the Malay States to seek his fortune in the early -days of this country's development. He arrived at Taiping, Perak, the year 1867, and entered the service of Mr. Low Sam, the headman of Larut district. At the end of a year he transferred his services to Assam Kubang and was appointed overseer of the tin mines. A year later he was recalled by his former employer to act as overseer of his mines and take charge

Sumber : Artikel Twentieth century impressions of British Malaya

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