Annual report on Brunei / Colonial Office.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1951]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Brunei / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    77/94 page 67
    consular courts with jurisdiction over British subjects and foreign subjects enjoying British protection. In 1906 a supplementary agreement was entered intb whereby the Sultan undertook to accept a British Officer to be styled Resident, who should be the agent and representative of the British Government under the High Commissioner for the Malay States.* The years between 1906 and 1941 were years of steady pro¬ gress. Very shortly after the treaty a form of Government was set up under the Sultan in Council and the British Resident, and law and order was established. Roads were built, people were encouraged to become agriculturists and fishermen according to their way of life. Conditions of housing were improved and trade flourished. The discovery of a workable oilfield at Seria only 10 miles from Kuala Belait in 1929 gave added importance to the State and its revenue increased and Brunei became prosperous. Period of Japanese Occupation. In the early morning of 16th December. 1941, the first wave of Japanese Forces landed at Kuala Belait and occupaid the oil¬ fields at Seria- Six days later on 22nd December, Brunei Town was occupied and all the British Govermhent Officials were interned- Almost immediately the Japanese introduced their East Asia Co-Prosperity policy but it had a bad effect on the people's morale when public thrashing had to be attended and later the Japanese dropped that policy to a certain extent. People living near Kuala Belait were driven to work in the oilfields and the country folk were forcibly made to grow food. Trade of course came to a standstill and only certain shop¬ keepers were allowed to remain as distributors. Luckily for the native population the Government in the years immediately preceding the outbreak of war had compelled traders to import large stocks of rice, the staple food in case the European war disrupted shipping in the Far East. As a result of that policy, the population had ample food for the first year and only slightly less in the second year, but by the end of 1943 the stocks had been used up and only a trickle of food was able to enter the country owing to Japanese shipping losses. Even the Japanese themselves lacked food but not for long. As soon as the local harvest was in. the majority of it was confiscated to feed the Japanese Forces and a serious state of starvation prevailed. Medicines were almost non-existent, malaria spread and the resistance of the population to disease was broken down- The Japanese policy seems to have been one of neglect. No anti-malarial work was done and no maintenance to houses, roads, ditches or water transport was even contemplated. In 1944 the Allied Air Force began to take an active interest in Brunei. There were almost daily raids somewhere in the State and later the main town areas were destroyed by bombing. All the shophouses were destroyed in Kuala Belait and Brunei Town and in the latter town the newly completed hospital with X-ray * The treaties and agreements relating to events described in this and the preceding paragraph were published as appendices to the Annual Report for 1946.
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