British presence in North Borneo started with the occupation of Labuan island by the British government in 1847. It was made into a naval base for the British navy in its campaign against piracy in this part of the world. In Owen Rutter's book British North Borneo : An Account of its History, Resources and Natives published in 1922, he described how piracy, slavery and headhunting activities in North Borneo had almost depopulate the country and this was further aggravated by the shortage of food when peaceful tribes abandoned all agricultural activity for fear of raiding parties.
In 1865, the United States Consul to Brunei, Mr Charles Lee Moses, obtained a ten years cession of large territories from the Sultan of Brunei. Unfortunate for him, the United States government was not interested in North Borneo. Hence, the rights to these territories were transferred to the American Trading Company of Borneo which was headed by Mr Joseph W. Torrey.
Torrey and associates attempted to set up a settlement in Kimanis which they called Ellena. Their enterprise failed because of disease, desertion and lack of financial backing.
In 1872, "Labuan Trading Company" established itself in Sandakan. The partners of this company were Mr J.D. Ross, Mr Carl Schomburgk and Mr W.C. Cowie who would eventually become the Managing Director in BNBCC.
Mr W.C. Cowie was a Scott and an adventurer. It was reported in the Straits Time dated 30 January 1902 that at one time, the Sultan of Brunei ceded the peninsula of Muara to him for service rendered. He was the White Rajah over the territory but he soon found himself bored with inaction and sold the territory to Rajah Brooke. In 1877, Torrey sold his rights to Baron Overbeck and Alfred and Edward Dent albeit that the lease had expired. Undaunted, the trio took over the lease and formed a syndicate to revive the lease. They successfully obtained in perpetuity 'certain' of the Sultan of Brunei's rights in North Borneo on 29 December 1877.
1) Mr Harrington G. Forbes, Secretary
2) Sir Charles J. Jessel, Bart., Vice Chairman
3) Mr Richard B. Martin, M.P., Chairman
4) Mr William C. Cowie, Managing Director
5) Mr Edward Dent
Standing in the centre is Captain W. Raffles Flint and standing at the far right at the back is Mr A.T Wardrop. Among them are Dayak (or Dyak as they spelled it in the old days) Jubilee Police Contingent who were in England to take part in the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration.
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| Staff of North Borneo Military Police |
1 comments :
WISHING ALL SABAHANS A MEMORABLE INDEPENDENCE DAY ON 31 AUGUST (NOT THE OTHER MERDEKA DAY!)
If there is anything to commemorate it is the short 16 bitter sweet days of real freedom.
Sabah since 1761 (when Dalrymple got it as trading post from the Brunei Sultanate) has basically been traded like a piece of real estate by Brunei, the Dutch, Spanish, USA, Austrians, Britain and then Malaya. (The latest trade off were the 2 blocks of offshore oilfields for Brunei dropping its claim on Limbang).
If we were to take 1865 (leased by the USA) as the starting point of the foreign colonization of North Borneo/Sabah, the poor country is still a colony after nearly 150 years!
24 years prior to 1865, in 1841 Sarawak came into being and existed as an independent state till 1941. It was recognised as a sovereign state by the USA in 1859 and Britain in 1863. It has also remained a colony since the Japanese invasion in 1941, colonization together with Sabah by Britain in 1945 and then by Malaya in 1963 to 2012. 70 years.
Sabah and Sarawak are siblings of Brunei and shared the same fate of being kidnapped (annexed) and taken over by Malaya in 1963.
To remind all of us of our real colonial status the rulers of Malaya (and many of its people) insists that we in Sabah and Sarawak celebrate their national day! So under the British we celebrated the Queen's birthday and now under Malaya we celebrate "Merdeka Day".
Nothing changed just the skin colour of the colonial master! Worse still, they looted the 2 colonies more intensively than the British were able to as they had only some 18 years of colonising Sabah and Sarawak. They ended up subsidising Malaya's economic development as Malaya did subsidised Britain's economy as one of its richest colonies before 1957.
"...the Malayan controlled Federal Government is now telling Sabahans and Sarawakians (intentionally or not) that Malaysia was nothing more than a “takeover” project for Malaya and that Sabah and Sarawak are now Malayan states/territories so they (Sabah and Sarawak) must now adopt Malayan historical independence" (Jeffery Kitingan)
The word "takeover" must hit many of us like a sledgehammer . Did they actually use this word? What arrogance! Yes but for once they are telling the truth.
Let us commemorate "Malayan Takover Day or Malayanization Day" 16 September!
Fly the Malayan colonial flag at half mast and upside down as a mark our distress and loss of our independence!
(From a posting in Wikisabah News 27/08/12)
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