Dockyard, Brooke’s Malay Child, Camphor and Chinese life during Occupation
Case Study of the Brooke Dockyard Kuching A. Ghafar Ahmed The Sarawak Museum Journal December 2021 aghafar7788@yahoo.com
Built in 1912, the Brooke Dockyard consists of a dry dock, a side launching ramp, a workshop, a slipway, a wharf and a training school. The facility served as an administrative and commercial core for the Second White Rajah Sir Charles Brooke. Its strategic location is close to the Sarawak river at the Junction of Jalan Market and Jalan Masjid. The Dockyard provided the first industrial employment sector for the White Rajahs boats. The dock provided employment for the heydays of the Kuching and inner Saribas areas as well as for military boats during the confrontation with Indonesia. In the modern shipping industry, Brook dockyard was abandoned due to space, limited facilities and demand for new technology. It was finally replaced by a facility at Sejingkat.
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Borneo Museum Journal 1972
Affair of James Brooke
I should mention that Mr Brooke married the niece of Pangiran Muda Hassim one Pangiran Fatimah the daughter of Pangiran Abdul Kadir . This might explain the grant to Mr Brooke and his heirs. My authority for the fact of the marriage is on Pangiran anak Hashima a niece of the lady. Quite recently, I met a Dr Ogilvie who told me had met the daughter if Rajah Brooke in 1866. She was married but evidently had foreign blood in her.Â
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Note on Bornean Camphor Imported into China by Han Wai Toon The Brunei Museum Journal 1985 this essay was written in 1940.
Borneol is the pharmaceutical term for aromatic.
The camphor is made of transparent crystals, white or brown secreted in the aged trunks of Dryobalanops aromatica Gaertin or called the lung-nao tree and the p’ing-p’ien tree in China, Sumatra, Borneo and the Malay Peninsula.
Due to primitive means of export, the ancient Chinese found it exceedingly difficult to obtain camphor. In ancient China the people believed in the supernatural power of the gods and took sacrifices to the gods quite seriously. They believed incense could affect the gods.
In Chinese sources, the earliest recorded tributary mission from Southeast Asia seems to have been the one dispatched from a certain country called Yueh-t-ang during the reign of King Ch’eng (BC1024-1005)of the Chou dynasty. In AD 2, the country of Huang-chih to the south of Jih-nan sent a tributary mission presenting a rhinoceros. Another tributary mission presenting a white pheasant and an elephant from the barbarian tribes to the south of Nan-yueh (Annam) was recorded in 37 AD. However, in these and other missions there was no record of aromatics at all. It was not until the late 210s AD that the prefects of the Chiao-chih sent a mission to see Sun Sh’uan, the dominant Warlord of China, with various incense. Later Funan (Cambodia) presented tributary items of gold, silver, pearl and incense to the Chin Dynasty (265-420).
For the Liang Dynasty, (502-557) a Chinese Journal stated that Lang-Yahsiu is located in the South Seas. It has a territory of 30 days of walk from east to west and twenty days from north to south. Its distance from Canton is 24 li. In local custom, men and women are naked and dishevel hair.
Here, the term P’-o-lu-hsiang refers to lung-naoh-siang (Borneo) The term was first used in the Sui dynasty (589-618). It seems that lung -naoh-hsing was first imported into China during Liang times. P’o-lu-hsiang originated from the later part of the Malay name for lung-nao-hsing and referred to the name of the place it was originally produced.
The term lung-nao-hsiang was first used, as far as we can see, in the dynastic history of the Sui dynasty.(589-618) Kapur Barus was the Malay name for camphor. In 642, during the reign of King Kanchi in India, had dispatched envoys to present lung-nao-hsiang to the T’ang court. At this time, Southeast Asia was maintaining very close cultural ties with India. Many Buddhists were fond of eating betel nuts together with lung-nao-hsing.
When the natives go into the hills to gather the lung-no, they go in troops of several men. They are provided with clothes made of tree bark and with supplies of sago for food. They go in different directions and whenever they find lung-no trees, they fell them with their hatchets and mark as many as ten more. They then cut these into lengths and divided themselves equally, after which each man cuts his share into boards. They form a notch along the sides and crosswise so as to produce chinks, and the lung no in these is got out by forcing a wedge between them. The lung nao which forms crystals is called “plum flower” because it resembles a plum flower. An inferior quality is called “gold foot” and broken bits are called mi-nao, when they are mixed up with splinters it is called ts’ang-nao. After all the lung nao has been removed from the wood it called nao chips.
According to the Chu-fan-chih places that produced lung nao hsiang include Sri Vijaya, Tan ma ling, Lenkausuka , Java and Brunei. By the Sung dynasty, lung nao hsiang had already been used more in medicine than in cosmetics. Natives in the south seas liked to eat it with betel nuts.
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A Glimpse of Civilian Life under the Empire of the Sun by Liap-Teck Ong Sarawak Museum Journal December 2021
This essay relies on documents from the Chinese community.
This work contradicts the research of British historian N.Tarling who states the Japanese occupation was a rampage and disorderly governance of the territories. Rather, the local populations were treated differently in each occupation zone. Here in Sarawak, “they {Chinese} most probably held significant economic power and commercial expertise”. The Japanese approach was to seek cooperation and support from the Chinese businessmen.”
In the early stages of the occupation, The Japanese Imperial Army encouraged the Chinese business community to form trading associations for the coordination of commercial activities.
The first known document was written on 26 January 1942. Three languages were used mainly English, Jawi and Chinese. English was the official language. Jawi script had the intention of liberating the local population from colonial powers while Chinese addressed those that read Mandarin. This particular circular regarded the payment of quit rents. The circular was probably written by Yamada San, a graduate of Oxford, who probably authored the English section.
The second proclamation, written in excellent English, regarded the prices of foodstuffs, wearing apparel and other consumer items. Only English was used in this missive. The proclamation signified the start of Martial Law in Sarawak. The announcement was authored by the “The Japanese Military Administration.”
The change from the Military Administration and Martial law to civilian rule was attempted, but the circulars all stated they were from the Japanese Imperial Army. The last day was 30 June 1942 when the military seals were used. Based on information in the documents , it is likely the Japanese Imperial Army tried to normalize practices established by the Brooke government.
Before December 1942, the old Sarawak Government receipts were used to collect leases from local companies like the Kwong Lee Gold Mining Syndicate. Debts were owed to the Borneo Company and the Sime Derby Company. In the later part of 1942, the Japanese began to use the term “The Great Japanese Imperial Government .” The phrase was later overprinted on stamps of Sarawak for a short period of time.
Japanese companies were invited to take over Sarawak concerns. For example, Nissa Shokai Company had taken over the Borneo company. Nissa Shokai was established in prewar Sarawak and conducted coal mining in the upper regions of the Rejang river.
Other Japanese companies were invited by the Imperial Japanese Army to establish economic activities. This included Takashimaya who took over the retail business of the Sime Darby Company.
The Japanese invaded China, Korea and Southeast Asia under the pretext of establishing the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. In early 1942, the Yokohama Specie Bank liquidated the Bian Chiang Bank, the Wah Tat Bank and the Kwong Lee Bank and merged them into a new bank called the Koei Bank. The Koei Bank also took over the only foreign bank operating in Sarawak, the Standard Charter Bank of India, China and Australia.
As the winds of war changed after the battle of Midway the Japanese attempted to raise money. War bonds were issued and the introduction of a head tax was implemented. The head tax seemed to be collected only from Chinese residents.
From
Ong, Liap Tang A Glimpse of Civilian Life Under the Empire of the Sun Sarawak Museum Journal December 2021
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