One Hundred Years' History Of The Chinese In Singapore: The Annotated Edition. Ong Siang Song
early stages of the construction of Anderson Bridge: and it is believed that these rumours were started by persons who were engaged in extensive smuggling or housebreaking operations.
The Free Press mentioned that among the arrivals from Amoy in 1853 were the wives and families of several of the most respectable Chinese merchants, and made a true remark that if the practice of the wives and families of our traders following them should continue, it might be expected to exercise a beneficial influence on the Chinese part of the population.
In the same year there arrived from England Miss Sophia Cooke17 to take over from Miss Grant the charge of the Chinese Girls’ School (then with twenty girls), which was for many years the only institution giving elementary English education, along with religious instruction, to Chinese girls. It was also an orphanage where many a Chinese orphan girl was brought up and educated and trained in household duties. This school has supplied wives to many of the early Chinese Protestant converts, and to-day in China, the Straits and FMS and the Dutch East Indies, there are still some of the old girls who have settled down there with their [87] husbands. For some years in the ‘Seventies, the School had a branch establishment for day pupils under Miss Foster and Chinese women teachers in a shop house at Middle Road, and later in a lane off North Bridge Road. This branch school got to be known as the ‘Ragged School’. Miss Cooke died in 1895, and for two years the work of the School was carried on by Miss Ryan, who, although now old and feeble, still takes an active share in the work she loves so well. Soon after the arrival of Miss Gage-Brown as its head, the School passed from the control of the Society for the Promotion of Female Education in the East to that of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society. Owing to ill-health, Miss Gage-Brown had to return to England and the School is now under the charge of Miss Tolley, doing quiet but good work among the eighty Chinese girl boarders, orphans and day pupils.
The outstanding event in the year 1854 was the émeute between the natives of Fukien and Kwangtung. The ostensible cause was a quarrel on the 5th May between a Hokien and a Cantonese about a trifle of five catties of rice. Mr Vaughan cites this riot as an illustration in support of his contention that most of the riots that occurred in Singapore did not originate with the secret societies, and says that on this occasion the solemn obligations of the secret societies were thrown to the winds, and members of the same Hoey fought to the death against their brethren. Mr Buckley, however, says that the casus belli was the refusal of the Hokiens to join the Kwangtung people in a subscription to assist the rebels who had been driven from Amoy by the Chinese Imperial troops.
Half an hour after its commencement, the town was a scene of fearful confusion: the police confessed their inability to quell the riot; brickbats were flying about in all directions: broken heads were plentiful: shops were pillaged: and, had it not been for the timely intervention of some Europeans, serious consequences might have ensued.18
[88]Governor Butterworth did not share the views of Mr Dunman, the Superintendent of Police, that the disturbance was going to develop into a serious affair which the Police could not cope with, and which would require the aid of the military forces. On the following morning the Governor rode into Hill Street near River Valley Road and was pelted by the mob, his hat being knocked off by a brickbat, and he had to retire. The military were called out and a body of marines landed from the British men-of-war in the harbour. The European community, to a man, offered their services and were sworn in as special constables.
Mr WH Read19 was the first special constable sworn in and was immediately directed to proceed, along with Mr Tan Kim Seng, to collect the headmen of the different Hoeys for a palaver at the Reading Room in Raffles Square. Some thirty headmen were brought in, and after the Governor had addressed them they were told to sign a document binding themselves to use their influence in restoring peace. When they had done so, Mr Read was again detailed to take eight constables and a well-known bad character named Moh Choon to proclaim peace through the town. Every hundred yards or so, Moh Choon20 shouted something in Chinese which his escort did not understand. One of the special constables, naturally nervous as the party was surrounded by hundreds of Chinese, said to Mr Read: ‘Suppose he was to call upon these fellows to assault us,’ to which the prompt reply was given: ‘I can’t help that, but you may depend that, on the first hostile movement, I shall shoot my friend Moh Choon and take my chance afterwards.’ Matters got from bad to worse, especially in the country districts where the Chinese rioters had been murdering, burning and destroying in all directions and committing unheard of atrocities. Men were impaled and chopped to bits: women had their breasts cut off and were tortured to death. During these disturbances, which lasted ten days, it was estimated that fully six hundred Chinese had been killed, besides a larger number wounded, and three hundred houses had been burnt or pillaged.
Referring to this émeute in his address to the Grand Jury, Sir William Jeffcott21, the Recorder, said:
These people had hitherto lived peaceably together, transacting business with each other and living intermingled in the same street. Without any apparent cause, however, a spirit of discord appears suddenly to have arisen amongst them, which on the 5th of May broke out in acts of violence, riots occurring in different parts of the town, and at length resulting in houses being attacked and plundered. This state of things continued for seven or eight days, although after the first three days the rioting in town gradually diminished. The police were incessantly employed, the military were called out, and the marines landed from the ships-of-war: and with a most praiseworthy alacrity, the European inhabitants came forward and offered most valuable assistance in preserving order, for which they were entitled to the gratitude of the community.
After the first two days, the disturbances spread into the country, where they assumed a very different character. The riotous proceedings there were much more serious and aggravated and quickly led to the plundering and burning of property, and eventually to the destruction of life and the committal of excesses of every kind of the most barbarous nature. The Grand Jury could easily understand how this difference should have taken place. While in town the people are comparatively civilised, the mass of the population in the jungle consists of men who have never for any length of time come in contact with Europeans or with the more orderly part of the town residents, and who live in a state of secluded semi-barbarism in the jungle, with little or no idea of what law or order is. When, therefore, the disturbances spread amongst them, they naturally plunged at once into far greater excesses than had characterised the town population, and the consequence was that for a series of days the rural districts were the scene of the most lamentable outrages – huts and villages being burnt down in every direction, and [90] murders committed, many of which had come to their knowledge, while it was to be feared many more had been perpetrated but remained unknown. Another cause, perhaps, of the different character which the disturbances in the country had assumed compared with those in the town might be found in the fact that while in the town the two parties were nearly equal, in the country one of them had the preponderance, and had the other party in a great measure in their power.22
About five hundred men had been arrested, of whom half were committed for trial. The Sessions lasted seventeen days. Six men were sentenced to death, but only two were executed: sixty-four were sentenced to various terms of hard labour, and eight were transported for fourteen years.
The year 1855 saw an increase in piracy. The most formidable pirates were Chinese who waylaid and fired on the junks and other native craft in their voyages to and from Singapore, in the China Sea and the Gulf of Siam. A public meeting was held in May to memorialise the Secretary of State on the subject. Among other resolutions, the following were passed:23
Proposed by Tan Beng Swee and seconded by JP Cumming:
that this meeting views with deep concern the ravages committed by pirates, Chinese especially, in the immediate vicinity of this port, to the great destruction of human life and detriment to trade.
Proposed by WH Read and seconded by Tan Kim Ching:
that in order to remedy the present insecurity of life and property, petitions be prepared and forwarded to the Supreme Government, the Houses of Parliament, and the Admiral on this Station, urging them to take vigorous measures to repress piracy in these parts.’