¹ One study states the proposition in the following way:

Land was a means of security and rather like the peasant in India who has an almost mystical attachment to his land, the Malay villager, had an almost similar attitude. MacAndrews, Colin, Mobility and Modernisation (Jogjakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 1977), p. 19.MacAndrews' citation in support of this point isGoogle ScholarIshwaran, K., Shivapur, A South Indian Village (New York: Humanities Press, 1968)Google Scholar.

² Perak Annual Report, 1890, p. 21Google Scholar.

³ Denison, Noel, Superintendent of Lower Perak, 7 Oct. 1891, in Smith to Knutsford, Desp No. 405 of 28 Oct. 1891, C0273/176/23048. Technically land remained the property of the state; “alienation” of land to cultivators took the form of a lease for which land rent, or “quit rent”, was paid to the stateGoogle Scholar.

⁴ Memorandum entitled “Comments on the Commissioner of Lands' Memorandum concerning Land Tenure by Malay Small Cultivators”, nd, in Selangor Secretariat file (hereafter Sel Sec) G505/1933.

⁵ Minute, George Bellamy to British Resident Selangor, 17 Apr. 1894, in Sel Sec 1681/94Google Scholar.

⁶ Perak Government Gazette, 5 June 1896, p. 394. Krian Monthly Report for Apr. 18%. Under land legislation in Malaya, the state owns all land; holdings alienated to farmers are considered to be rented and revenue paid to the state is termed “land rent”Google Scholar.

⁷ Birch, E.W., “A Memorandum upon the Subject of Irrigation” (Kuala Lumpur, 1898), pp. 11–12Google Scholar.

⁸ Willis, John C., “A Report upon Agriculture in the Federated Malay States” (Kuala Lumpur: Government Printing Office, 1905), p. 13. Willis was Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in CeylonGoogle Scholar.

⁹ Perak Circular No. 13 of 1906: Land AdministrationGoogle Scholar.

¹⁰ Rhodes, Hastings, “Objects and Reasons”, Malay Reservations Enactment, 1912, dated 1 Apr. 1912, in Sel Sec 3013/12Google Scholar.

¹¹ Perak Annual Report, 1914, p. 5Google Scholar; Perak Annual Report, 1915, p. 5Google Scholar.

¹² Memorandum by A g District Officer Ulu Selangor, nd, in Set Sec G739/28.

¹³ Memorandum by Pateh Akhir, Malay Co-operative Officer, Selangor, 5 May 1931, in District Office Sitiawan 226/32Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Maxwell, W. E., “The Law and Customs of the Malays with Reference to the Tenure of Land”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Straits Branch 13 (1884): 77–79; emphasis in originalGoogle Scholar.

¹⁵ Ibid., 175-76. It should be borne in mind that the rights of th e “owner of the land” were established by evidence of cultivation.

¹⁶ Ibid., p. 177; the bracketed phrase appears in the original translation.

¹⁷ Winstedt, R. O., “Kedah Laws”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Malayan Branch 6,2 (05 1928): 8, 28. This is the sole reference to land in th e statutes collected for the articleGoogle Scholar.

¹⁸ The following items concerning land were issued officially or quasi-officially by the Malayan government: “Papers Relating to the Revenue Survey System, Federated Malay States”, Printed in 1902 (Sel Sec 6468/1902). “The Land Laws and Land Administration of the Federated Malay States”, author not given, nodatebutca. 1907-1910 (ArkibNegara Malaysia P/PTG 3). “Instructions to Land Officers”, nodatebutca. 1908 (Sel Sec 5138/1908). Land Administration and Surveys, no date but ca. 1924; a collection of articles by various officials. W.F.N. Bridges, Surveys for Title in the Federated Malay States with Notes on the Revenue Surveys of the Unfederated Malay States (Kuala Lumpirt, 1930; reprinted 1951). Hannyngton, J.F. (compiler), A Handbook for Collectors of Land Revenue, published in 1950Google Scholar. Papers laid before the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements on Land Administration 1883-1889 (3 vols.). Other sources concerning land law and land tenure in Malaya include: Maxwell, W.E., “The Law and Custom of the Malays with Reference to the Tenure of Land”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Straits Branch 13 (1884): 75–220.Google ScholarMaxwell, W.E., Memorandum on the Introduction of a Land Code in the Native States of the Malay Peninsula (Singapore, 1894)Google Scholar. Maxwell, W.E., Straits Settlements: Present and Future Land Systems (Rangoon, 1883).Google ScholarWilson, H.E., “The Evolution of Land Administration in the Malay States”, Journal ofthe Royal Asiatic Society, Malaysian Branch 48, 1(1975): 120–33.Google ScholarHogg, James E., Registration of Title to Land Throughout the Empire (Toronto: The Carswell Co., 1920).Google ScholarMeek, C.K., Land Law and Custom in the Colonies (London: Oxford University Press, 1949)Google Scholar. Das, S.K., The Torrens System in Malaya (Singapore: Malayan Law Journal, 1963).Google ScholarWong, DavidS.Y., Tenure and Land Dealings in the Malay States (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1975)Google Scholar. Ghee, Lim Teck, Origins of a Colonial Economy (Penang: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 1976).Google ScholarHooker, M.B., Adat Laws in Modern Malaya (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1972).Google ScholarSiwar, Chamhuri, Kehendak dan Bentuk Reformasi Tahan di Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1976)Google Scholar.

¹⁹ , Willis, Report upon Agriculture, 30–1Google Scholar.

²⁰ Prior to the 1931 Census, persons of Sumatran origin resident in the Malay Peninsula were counted as Malays.

²¹ The Malacca land issue is discussed in Maxwell, W.E., “Law and Customs”; L.A. Mills, British Malaya (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1966; first published in 1925)Google Scholar; Joseph, K.T., “The Malacca Land Laws”, Federation Museums Journal 15 (1970) andGoogle ScholarKratoska, Paul H., “Lan d Law and Land Tenure in British Melaka”, in Melaka, eds. Sandhu, K.S. and Wheatley, P. (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

²² Maxwell, W.E., Memorandum on the Introduction of a Land Code in the Native States in the Malay Peninsula. Singapore: Government Printing Office, 1894, p. ivGoogle Scholar.

²³ Ibid., p. 6.

²⁴ Ibid., p. 1.

²⁵ Ibid., p. 32.

²⁶ Ibid., p. ii.

²⁷ Extracts from the Perak State Council Minutes for 31 Jan. 1885, in ibid., p. 15.

²⁸ Ibid., p. 27; Sel Sec 147/91; Sel Sec 202/91.

²⁹ Ibid., p.31.

³⁰ Ibid., p. 35.

³¹ Ibid., p. 37.

³² Figures for 1903 are found in R.S. Watson, “The Land Laws and Land Administration of the Federated Malay States,” FMS Legal Pamphlet No. 75 (1908), 8-9. Figures for 1920 are from “The Land Rules, 1920” in Sel Sec 1356/24,

³³ W.E. Maxwell, “The Torrens System of Conveyancing by Registration of Title”, Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements, Paper No. 15 of 1883; emphasis in original.

³⁴ Selangor Regulation III of 1891, Section 23. The regulation is discussed in C0273/172/8581.

³⁵ The Selangor Land Enactment of 1897, Part III: “Country Lands 100 acres and Under”, Section 35. The technical distinctions between Torrens titles and the provisions for Customary Land are explained in David S.Y. Wong, Tenure and Land Dealings, pp. 81, 116, 119-20. For the discussion of the 1897 enactment in London, see C0273/176/23048 and C0273/218/23101. The amendments are considered in C0273/272/3688.

³⁶ Sel Sec 4139/21. In the same file the Resident of Selangor suggested in reply to Maxwell that the Land Enactment passed in 1903 (the 1911 Enactment then in force followed the 1903 law on this point) had converted the entry in the Mukim Register into a title. He pointed out that the enactment referred to “title by entry in the Mukim Register”, that various Residents and Commissioners of Lands had said that the entry in the Mukim Register constituted a title, and that the Government's printed “Instructions to Land Officers” stated: “It must be borne in mind that the entry in the Mukim Register is the title.”

³⁷ Perak Government Gazette, vol. 3, no. 26 (19 Sept. 1890), p. 589Google Scholar.

³⁸ Letter from G. Maxwell to N.R. Jarrett, 28 Mar. 1952. Maxwell's letter is part of the holdings of the Royal Commonwealth Society Library in London, and I am grateful to the Librarian, Mr. Donald Simpson, for permission to quote from this source.

³⁹ Sel Sec 4394/92.

⁴⁰ Sel Sec 824/96. A distinction was made between large and small holdings; arguably it was not invidious.

⁴¹ These points are discussed in Sel Sec 4139/21.

⁴² The Legal Adviser, FMS, in Proceedings of the Federal Council, FMS, 1926, p. B81Google Scholar.

⁴³ Sel Sec 4139/21. Emphasis in original.

⁴⁴ “Report of the Committee appointed to consider the Land, Registration of Titles & Mining Enactments, on th e Land Enactment, 1911”, in Sel Sec 4343/13.

⁴⁵ Legal Reports, FMS, 1920–1926, pp. 240–41Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Commissioner of Lands, Circular No. 3 of 1926, in Sel Sec 6363/26.

⁴⁷ Williams, E.B., C Lds FMS, to British Resident Selangor, 16 Nov. 1932, in Sel Sec G2447/31Google Scholar.

⁴⁸ Humphreys, J.L., “Note on Second Draft F.M.S. Land Code (March 1925)”, in Sel Sec 2447/31. The Indian official was Henry Scott Boys whose book entitledGoogle ScholarSome Notes on Java and Its Administration by the Dutch was published in 1892 (Allahabad: Pioneer Press)Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ C0717/56/29085. Minutes by , Ellis dated 21 Mar. 1927 and 25 June 1927, and High Commissioner's Despatch No. 296, dated 13 May 1927Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ Surveyor General's letter of 25 03. 1913 in Sel Sec 1790/13Google Scholar.

⁵¹ Shaw, H. Redfearn, Ag Revenue Surveyor, to Commissioner of Lands 11 June 1896, in Sel Sec 3305/96. In Sel Sec 1280/96 the various instruments and methods used in Selangor surveys are describedGoogle Scholar.

⁵² “Papers relating to the Revenue Survey System, Federated Malay States”, in Sel Sec 6468/02.

⁵³ Minute to Resident, 26 Apr. 1913, in Set Sec 1790/13Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ Lowinger, V., Surveyor General, FMS and Straits Settlements, “Surveys in the Malay Peninsula”, in Harrison, C.W. et al, Land Administration and Surveys (nd but ca. 1924), p. 16Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ Williams, E.B., Commissioner of Lands, to Under Secretary to Government, FMS, 1 Nov. 1932, in Sel Sec G505/33. In the same file, the Surveyor General stated that some $17 of the survey costs represented “overhead”, that is the cost of tuition, supervision and administration, leave, boundary markets, clerical work and the like, little of which would have been saved even if survey of native holdings had been abandoned altogetherGoogle Scholar.

⁵⁶ Appendix Bl to the 1951 reprint of W.F.N. Bridges, Surveys for Title in the Federated Malay States (originally printed in 1930), p. 60. In 1948 all survey fees were increased by 50 percent. See Sel Sec 925/48.

⁵⁷ The law allowed action only after a landholder had failed to cultivate his land for three successive years, and then a series of notices of resumption had to be issued before a decree could be obtained declaring the holding state land once again.

⁵⁸ Memorandum by Ag District Officer, Ulu Selangor, nd, in Sel Sec G739/28Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ Sel Sec 1088/22.

⁶⁰ Sel Sec 1726/98.

⁶¹ Sel Sec G601/29.

⁶² Sel Sec 1088/23. That this use of TOLs was not intended is apparent from the fact that the “Instructions ot Land Officers” (Section 52, iv) prohibited issue of TOLs to occupy land if the land was later to be alienated to the licensee. These instructions were for guidance only, however, and were not legally binding.

⁶³ McClelland, A.S., Ag British Resident Perak, 4 Sept. 1923, in Sel Sec 3883/23Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ Reported in Moubray, G.A. de, Collector of Land Revenue, Kuala Lumpur, to Secretary to the Resident, Selangor (date at head of letter, 6 Oct. 1923), in Sel Sec 3883/23Google Scholar.

⁶⁵ Sel Sec 3883/23.

⁶⁶ Harrison, CW., Ag Commissioner of Lands, 7 Nov. 1923, in Sel Sec 3883/23Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ Minute by Secretary for Chinese Affairs, 17 Feb. 1926, copied as (1C) in Sel Sec 1513/26Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ Sel Sec G739/28.

⁶⁹ Negeri Sembilan Sec G1908/31. Under the law Temporary Occupation Licences could not be issued free of charge.

⁷⁰ Sel Sec G578/28.

⁷¹ Sel Sec G739/28.

⁷² SelSecG505/33.

⁷³ Williams, E.B., Commissioner of Lands, FMS, to Under Secretary to Government, FMS, 1 Nov. 1932, in Sel Sec G2447/31Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ Memorandum from Commissioner of Lands, FMS, to British Resident Selangor, 16 Nov. 1932, in Sel SecG2447/31Google Scholar.

⁷⁵ For a more detailed account of this subject, see Kratoska, Paul H., “‘Ends that we cannot foresee’: Malay Reservations in British Malaya”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies XIV, 1 (03, 1983)Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ FMS Enactment No. 15 of 1913. The rights of landholders in reservations were otherwise unchangedGoogle Scholar.

⁷⁷ When land already owned by a non-Malay was in an area declared a Malay Reservation, the non-Malay landholder's right to dispose of his land was unaffected. Such land could be transferred to another non-Malay. If, however, it was transferred to a Malay, it became subject to the provisions of the enactment.

⁷⁸ Proceedings of the Federal Council, FMS, 1933, p. B132Google Scholar.

⁷⁹ “Interim Report on the Policy and Practice of Short Term Food Production in the Malayan Union”, by South, F. W., 3 July 1946, in RC Sel 459/46. The Resident Commissioners' Conference in October 1946, reaffirmed this policy of benign neglect toward squatters. The Resident Commissioner for Selangor commented, “Not only was it beyond our capacity to take energetic action but also the question of food policy was involved.”Google ScholarWard, W.A., Resident Commissioner (hereafter RC) Sel to Chief Secretary, Malayan Union, 25 Mar. 1947, in RC Sel 57/47. Squatter occupation of estate land was of importance mainly in Province Wellesley and Selangor; in Perak it was a minor problem and had been dealt with by 1949. “Report of the Perak State Squatter Committee, Oct 1949”, p. 4Google Scholar.

⁸⁰ See, for example, RC Sel 533/47.

⁸¹ RC Sel to Chief Secretary, Malayan Union, 25 Mar. 1947, in RC Sel 57/47Google Scholar.

⁸² Sel Sec Confidential 352/49.

⁸³ Ibid.

⁸⁴ Ibid.

⁸⁵ RC Sel to Chief Secretary, Malayan Union, 25 Mar. 1947, in RC Sel 57/47Google Scholar.

⁸⁶ RC Sel 533/47.

⁸⁷ The regulation requiring estates to plant foodstuffs was gazetted as Proclamation No. 67 in the Second Supplement to the British Military Administration, Malaya, Gazette, vol. l, no. 12,6Mar. 1946, not 338. At a Resident Commissioners' Conference on 12 Dec. 1946, however, the High Commissioner said that, while “for reasons of public policy” the proclamation could not be repealed, in view of improvements in local food production it could be “gradually relaxed”, and officials were instructed to show “the greatest degree of leniency … towards the Managers of Estates as regards the degree and method of insisting on compliance with the Circular” concerning food production. Sel Civil Affairs 114/46 enclosure (173); see also District Office Larut 138/46.

⁸⁸ This report made no attempt to define what a “squatter” was. A Perak State Squatter Committee, created after the federal report was issued, suggested that the term should be understood to include occupants of land under Temporary Occupation Licence, squatters on sufferance, and trespassers. Report of the Perak State Squatter Committee, 28 Oct. 1949, p. 2.

⁸⁹ Report of the Committee Appointed … to Investigate the Squatter Problem, 10 Jan. 1949, pp. 2–3Google Scholar.

⁹⁰ Ibid., p. 6. Officials commenting on squatter policy in Sel Sec Secret 269/49 similarly emphasized the desirability of providing squatters with legal tenure over the lands they occupied.

⁹¹ “Note on Form of Title Appropriate for Squatters”, enclosed in Commissioner of Lands letter of 19 July 1949, in Sel Sec 758/49Google Scholar.

⁹² Minute from Davis, B. to State Secretary, 26 July 1949, in Sel Sec 758/49. The parallels between Davis' ideas and th e comments of the Revenue Survey Committee in 1902 are striking. See footnote 49Google Scholar.

⁹³ Federation of Malaya Ordinance No. 49 of 1952. The Land Code (Federated Malay States) (Amendment) Ordinance, 1952; seeGoogle ScholarProceedings of the Federal Legislative Council (Fifth Session), Meeting of 11 Sept. 1952, pp. 449–50; Sel Sec 2102/52; Sel Sec 3061/52Google Scholar.

⁹⁴ Mehmet, Ozay, “Evaluating Alternative Land Schemes in Malaysia: FELDA and FELCRA”, Contemporary Southeast Asia 3,1 (03. 1982): 340–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁹⁵ Elles, B.W., Secretary to the Resident, Perak, to Under Secretary, FMS, 26 July 1923, quoting J. W. Simmons, in Sel Sec 3542/23Google Scholar.

⁹⁶ Most land in the Krian area was not declared a Malay Reservation until after 1930, but the Krian Irrigation Enactment of 1905 prevented conversion of rice land in the irrigation area to other purposes. Values for rice land in Krian are taken from High Commissioner's Office files 1545/1908 and 1655/1908. In the former file the Assistant District Officer for Krian suggested that land values followed a formula of $1 for each 7.5 gantangs an acre of land yielded, but yieldfigureswere so unreliable that the formula was of little use, and a good harvest in 1908 increased land values shortly thereafter. For rubber land values, see Drabble, John, Rubber in Malaya, 1876-1922 (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 73Google Scholar.

⁹⁷ The premium on first-class lands of less than 10 acres was $1 per acre (with no premium on second or third class lands), and survey fees were $15 for holdings of 5 acres or less. The Land Laws and Administration of the Federated Malay States, pp. 7-8. The cost of establishing a new holding must, of course, be taken account, but small fanners planting rubber could continue with subsistence crops while rubber trees came into bearing.

⁹⁸ Lovelace and Hastings to CS, FMS, 9 Mar. 1932, in Sel Sec G2447/31Google Scholar.

⁹⁹ For example, rates of interest were disguised to evade the Usurious Loans Enactment, mortgages (registered with the government) were combined with loans on note of hand (not registered), loans were combined with usufructory agreements, and the like.

¹⁰⁰ This situation has been discussed in a number of studies, notably Wilson, T.B., “The Economics of Padi Production in North Malaya” (Kuala Lumpur, Dept. of Agriculture, Fed. of Malaya, 1958)Google Scholar; Abdullah, Mohd. Shadli, “The Relationship of the Kinship System to Land Tenure” (unpublished Masters Thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 1978)Google Scholar; Fujimoto, Akimi, Income Sharing Among Malay Peasants (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1983)Google Scholar; and Gibbons, D.S., Ghee, Lim Teck, Elliston, G.R., and Kassim, Shukur bin, “The Final Report on Land Tenure in the Muda Irrigation Area” (Pusat Penyelidikan Dasar, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 1978 and 1981)Google Scholar.