The Three White Rajas; The Ranee of Sarawak

[BBooks comment - what follows is a rather interesting Foreword to the original edition by Vyner Brooke, 3rd Rajah of Sarawak] ‘I REGARD my wife’s invitation to write a foreword to her Three White Rajas as so graceful a gesture that I feel it would be ungallant, in this instance, to adhere to my hitherto unbroken rule not to appear in print. In any case, this foreword has the merit of originality, since it is written without any knowledge of how she proposes to treat the subject. I know that she has devoted much time and trouble to research in connection with this work, and I shall be as interested in seeing what conclusion she comes to concerning the characters of my Predecessors and myself, and their influence on the trend of Sarawak history, as I hope others will be. I might be tempted to avail myself of this opportunity to give a dissertation on what I consider the proper method of “Governing Natives” had I any settled convictions on the subject, but if forty years of administration have taught me anything, it is the danger of assuming that any hard and fast rules can be laid down and followed in this connection. A very great, humane and astute Frenchman, Monsieur Paul Cambon, summed up his convictions in the following words: In Politics, as in life, it is essential that one should be able to look at things from the point of view of the other party.” The views of the other party alter according to conditions and circumstances, and these alterations must be followed with sympathy and understanding, if harmony is to be achieved. Similarly with the Native viewpoint. Trouble is bound to occur if the ruling power is lacking in adaptability, because it must be remembered that the demands of successive Asiatic generations alter mainly on account of changes brought about by the increasing Europeanization of their environment. Sarawak has been fortunate, up to the present time, in being a small country very much off the beaten track. She bears about the same relationship to the Imperial group as a Dartmoor village does to England. So hitherto the Malays, Europeans, Chinese, and indigenous and other races composing her microcosm have lived a kind of family life which is probably unparalleled elsewhere. Squabbles there have been, as must occur in all families, but these have never developed into serious differences, owing to mutual sympathy and understanding arising from intimate relations and common aims. I trust that this state of affairs may continue long after my time. It may not be considered out of place if I say here that I think my wife’s dedication of her last book to me with the phrase that I have never let her down, and that I have made her laugh as has no other man, one of the greatest compliments ever paid to any husband. I think, moreover, that it conveys a better impression of her own nature than any eulogies of her husband could do. Mutual understanding, like Charity, should begin at home.