Report on Brunei in 1904

In 1904 the British Protectorate of Brunei had reached the nadir of its fortunes. Reduced to two small strips of territory, bankrupt, and threatened with takeover by the Rajah of Sarawak (Sir Charles Brooke), Brunei received M. S. H. McArthur who was dispatched to make recommendations for Brunei’s future administration. As a result of McArthur’s Report on Brunei in 1904, the British government decided to underwrite the separate existence of the sultanate, thus giving a reprieve to the “dying kingdom.” The report is the most important document in the history of modern Brunei and is here annotated and given historical context by A. V. M. Horton.