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Sir William George Maxwell

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Sir William George Maxwell

Sir William George Maxwell (1871–1959) was a senior British colonial administrator in Malaya whose career spanned 35 years, from junior district officer to Chief Secretary of the Federated Malay States. A member of the Maxwell dynasty that dominated Straits Settlements and Malay States governance across three generations, he is best remembered for his central role in the inter-war decentralisation controversy and his opposition to the Malayan Union scheme of 1946. [1, pp. 117–118]

The Maxwell Dynasty and Early Career

The first Maxwell to arrive in Malaya was Peter Benson Maxwell (1816–93), a London barrister who became Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements (1856–71) and later published Our Malay Conquests (1878), expressing disapproval of British intervention in the Malay states. [1, p. 118] His son, Sir William Edward Maxwell (1846–97), reached the peak of his Malayan career as acting governor in the mid-1890s and introduced the Torrens system of registered land title from South Australia, which became the basis of the National Land Code. [1, p. 118]

George Maxwell, born on 9 June 1871, was the eldest of six sons. [1, p. 119] A scholarship took him to Clifton College, Bristol, in 1885, and on leaving school in 1890 he went directly into the Perak service as a junior district officer in 1891. [1, p. 119] Over the following decade he held relatively junior posts in Perak and Pahang, and qualified as a barrister of the Inner Temple. [1, p. 120] In 1904 he transferred to the Straits Settlements civil service, was appointed Solicitor General in 1906, and acted as Attorney General in 1908. [1, p. 120] He married Evelyn Stevenson in 1902; they had two sons. [1, p. 120]

Chief Secretary and the Decentralisation Controversy

In 1909 Maxwell was appointed British Adviser to Kedah, a post he held until 1914. [1, p. 120] During his five years there he secured the abolition of debt-bondage and reformed the judicial, police and land systems, showing a sympathetic understanding of Kedah’s traditions. [1, p. 120] The outbreak of war in 1914 brought a period of stress in which Maxwell filled, for short periods, the posts of Resident of Perak, General Adviser of Johor, Colonial Secretary of the Straits Settlements, and controller of essential food supplies. [1, p. 120]

The Colonial Office appointed Maxwell as Chief Secretary of the FMS in 1920, overruling the High Commissioner Sir Lawrence Guillemard, who had nominated another candidate. [1, p. 121] The appointment led to a power struggle between the two men that became legendary in its devious savagery. [1, p. 121] Maxwell initially supported the principle of decentralisation—restoring powers to the state governments that the federal centre had accumulated under Swettenham and Brockman—but his procrastination and the hardening of attitudes on both sides turned the policy debate into a personal feud. [1, p. 121] The business community supported Maxwell; the rulers and Residents backed Guillemard’s proposals. [1, p. 121] Maxwell was forced into retirement in 1926 at the customary age of 55, having been awarded the CMG in 1915 and the KBE in 1924. [1, pp. 121–122]

Post-Retirement Activities and the Malayan Union

After retirement Maxwell became a director of the Duff Development Company and, as a member of the London Rubber Growers Association, participated in the discussions leading to the International Rubber Regulation Agreement of 1934. [1, p. 122] He served as vice-chairman of the League of Nations Committee on Slavery from 1932 to 1939. [1, p. 122] In 1942 he chaired the committee that produced The Civil Defence of Malaya, setting out the measures taken in support of the armed forces during the Japanese invasion. [1, p. 122]

When the Malayan Union scheme was announced in late 1945, Maxwell was at first disposed to welcome it, but on studying the details he changed his mind, objecting that the grant of citizenship to non-Malays on the basis of birth or residence would be ‘as automatic as a penny-in-the slot machine’. [1, p. 122] He suggested instead an enlarged federation of all the peninsular Malay states. [1, p. 122] Joining forces with Swettenham, Clementi and Winstedt, he wrote to The Times and went as a delegation to an interview with the Secretary of State. [1, p. 122] When the Malayan Union constitution was withdrawn, the old guard claimed credit, though the records show the decision was driven by circumstances in Malaya of which they were unaware. [1, pp. 122–123] Maxwell lived to see an independent Malaya in 1957 but played no significant part in the discussions leading to that result. [1, p. 123]

Legacy and Documentation

Maxwell’s literary output was intermittent but notable. He published In Malay Forests (1907) through William Blackwood and Sons, a collection of anecdotes based on personal experience in the Malay states that depicted Malay village life in remoter areas of Perak and Pahang in the 1890s. [1, pp. 123–124] He contributed 15 articles to the Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and served as its president in the post-war period, recognising his clear mind in a programme for the Society’s revival in the 1919 annual report. [1, p. 123] His personal papers are held at the Rhodes House Library, Oxford, and on microfilm in the National University of Singapore library. [1, p. 125] The most substantial secondary treatments are Yeo Kim Wah’s The Politics of Decentralisation (1982) and A. J. Stockwell’s British Policy and Malay Politics during the Malayan Union Experiment (1979). [1, p. 124]

MBRAS Sources

Bibliography

References

  1. J.M. Gullick (2017). William George Maxwell: a biographical note JMBRAS 90(2): 117–126. Read on JSTOR