The British Foreign Office and The Siamese Malay States, 1890-1897

Abstract

It is generally understood that British interest in the Malay Peninsula during the latter part of the nineteenth century grew in proportion to the extension of French influence in Indo-China and was merely another feature of an age of imperialism. But, in the days before the British position in the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States began to influence policy-making at Whitehall, the Foreign Office conceived Britain's role in the Siamese kingdom on a much larger perspective. British interest in Siam during this period has been described at various times as being primarily a concern for the defence of the Indian Empire, a desire to safeguard her predominant commercial stake in Siam, a vain dream for the construction of a railway from Burma into South China, or a deter- mination to prevent foreign Powers from gaining a foothold in the Malay Peninsula. The Foreign Office's views on the strategic importance of the Siamese part of the Malay Peninsula during the 1880s have been carefully documented in two important articles by V.G. Kiernan.¹ This paper will attempt to show the nature of the interest in the Siamese Malay States at the Foreign Office from 1890 until 1897 when the Colonial Office, representing the Straits government, assumed a more determining role in policy-making.