PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

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Legen dary CAR COS A , ,'," by II ARRY MU.m

T;IE one house in Malaya that could be said to reflect the con­

stitutional changes in the Federation in the past half-century is Carcosa, now the home of the High Commis­s ioner for the United Kingdom_

Since it was built 61 years ago, it has been occupied by a succession of top Malayan Civil ervants whose titles before the war ranged from Resident-General to Chief Secretary down to a Federal ecretary who gave way to the Briti h Resident of SelanO"or.

During the Japa nese occupation, Carcosa became the home of a general and later a sen ior officer " mess. When the British Military Admin istration took over, Carcosa accepted the continuation of its career as a senior officers' mess, and th en welcomed the return of the Chief Secretary. It resumed its place in the order of precedence as the home of the chief executive officer.

The first Malayan Civi l Servant to call it home was the legendary S ir Frank Swettenham, who ended his

career as Governor of the traits Settlements and High Commissioner for the Malay States.

The last M.C.S. occupant was Sir David Watherston who retired a fort­night after he had witnessed the solemn ceremony that changed the Federation of Malaya into an inde­pendent State.

What a wealth of hi story there was in the years between these two men­th e one watching the emergence of mediaeval Malay State from anarchy to ordered democra ti c development and the other helping to implement with the max imum of smoothness the constituti onal processes that led to independence.

Carcosa stands on a ridge a mile out of the Federal Capital and over­looks a panorama that begins from the well-ordered roads and paths amI man-fashioned lake of the botanical gardens ju t below and extends to the ragged outline of the main range.

This is not, by the way, the grand­est view in Kuala Lumpur. "The Residency," home of the Prime

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perpustakaan Negq Malaysia

Minister, has perhaps a better one and th e hilltop homes of some of Malaya's tin and rubber magnates vie closely for the honour.

But before the turn of the century, when life was more gracious and standards were measured by great houses and sweeping lawns, the de­signers of Carcosa, in the M.C.S. and the P. W.D., cho e good high ground - which later proved a few feet higher than it nearest neighbour, King's House, built eight years later.

King's House was aloof and isolated in those far-off days. Tradi­tional home of the High Commis­sioner of the Federa ted Malay States, it welcomed him at least four times a year when he left Government House, Singapore, for official tours " up-country."

Because the Resident-General was the chief executive offi cer of the High Commissioner in the F.M.S. they built him a great house with lligh ceilings, a bathroom to each bed­room, lounges, a dining room, and a bi ll iard ro vhich in these modern

Puge Six· On e

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Smelll lounge. top left. is to left of main entrance Lo Carcos". Behind COliC" on TifJht is billiards room, where Malay womcn guests have played IIIe game. 1'''. last CM.f Secre/nry, SIr Davitl Wllthers/on a"d fAUlll lVuthersiQII in Ca,-casu's S /JIIC;OU S IJurch .

days has seen a sight at which some of the old-timers might have been aston ished - that of graceful Malay women handling billiard cue" with hila rious delight.

Those spaciolls days . .. you sign ed a visitor's book and you were invited to dinner, pahits, receptions or gar­den parties - in strict accordance with a nice gradation of social and public importance. After dinner, you drank the King's health in port.

But why the name "Carcosa"'! Mysterious word and name which you will not find in any anthology or dictionary.

The men, and the women, who have come to Malaya since the war have been just as curious about the origin of "Carcosa" as pre-war Malayans.

Many theories were advanced long after Swettenham's departure. One was somewhat ribald. The suggestion was that the name was an adaptation of a Dutch-Malay word applied to a mean structure which need not he specified here.

Someone else put forward a more credible explanation: the name was a combination of "karkun," secre­tary, chief of the scribes, and "ka-asa" or "kasa," the first one, the chief one. But then, these Malav words were familiar only in wluit was then the Netherlands Indies.

In desperation, an appeal went out to Sir Frank Swettenham, living in

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Carcosa's main loun .qe, above, has ',een the scene 01 many cocktail parties and ,'ecep­lions. Throallh the archway is I,he din;,," room. One of the most gracious features of the house is the "grand staircase," rI~91,t . Coreo.oul was built b!l I' . lV .D. 61 years (IflO .

vigorous retirement (he drew a pen­sion for more than 40 yea rs) in England. Would he please relieve the curi os ity?

He li ved up to expectati ons. H ow· ever, before lifting the vei l for the benefit of the modern Malayan, it should be said that Swetlenham had literary leanings. He read just as much as he wrote. He was described as popular with the intelligentsia of the Nineti es who included Balfour, Curzon, George Wyndham, and Mar · got Asquith.

He was also an Englishman with an Englishman's inherent des ire to g ive hi s castle, however mean it might be, a name. Beyond England, didn't Frederiek th e Great call his home, "Sans Souci," and, coming very much nea rer home, was not th e residence of the Dutch Govern or­General 111 the Indies christened " Buitenzorg"?

Swettenham found the unu unl name he was looking for in a book called "The King in Yellow" ( its author alas, is not known ). In it were verse , two of which ran:

Strange is the niglJt where blac1e stars rise,

And twin moons circle in the skies, But stranger still is

Lost Carcosa. Song of my soul, my voice is dead; Die thou, unsung, as tears uns /led Sflall dry and die in

Lost Carcosa,

Swettenham said he did not call the Resident-General's dwelling "Govern­ment House" because it did not seem an appropriate name in Protected Sta tes. He did not give it a Malay name because it was to be the res idence of a British officer.

"So I took a book name as has often been done before," he said , add ing, "The simple tru th may spoil a number of excellent tori es."

But Swettenham could not expla in Careosa. He imag ined it was " the castle of the 'King in Yellow,' but the book explains nothing about either the place or its occupant."

He came to the conclusion that the word had probably been "created by the author's fancy though it looks like a combinati on of the Italian words cara and casa and would mean 'des ira ble dwelling' - a indeed, [ found it."

Speaking then in L936, li e Jloted the curious fact that the name had become a "prophetic" one - because

by then, the hou e had Jost its name and had thu become "Lost Carcosa: '

Which indeed was th e ca e. A constitutional change had red uced the standing of the "Chief Secretar y." In tead of being first after the High Commiss ioner in order of precedence, he came after the fo ur Brit.ish Res idents.

As " Federal Secre tary" he was merely the High Commiss ioner's agent and mouthpiece and n o longe r prin cipal offi cer equ al in rank or even superi or in rank to the Colonial Secretar y of the Stra it Settle men ts.

As he had a lower standing, the Federal Secreta ry's salary was cut and he 10 t Ca rco a, and the name di ed when it becam e the home of the British Res ident who call ed it quite unente rlJr is ing ly, "Selangor Res ide ll ­cy."

The Federal Sec reta ry wellt to Ji ve a t' th e old Residency, wh ich is toda th e Pr ime Milli ster's home, but its occupa nt was never ill the mood to

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PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

fi nd a not hcr name. As a re ident of th e day rcmarkc :1. " It was r a th e r difficu lt to think o [ it uitable title," but the wi ts fo un d an outle t for the ir imaginati o:l throu fY h a s tran ge co in ­cidence.

The fir t Fedcra l Secreta ry was Mr. C. D. Ahea rnc, an Iri s hman. He had been promoted from Controller of Labour to Chief Secretary. When he was demoted to Fede ral Sec retary, he a l 0 ufle red a loss of emolument of $50 a month.

So what more apt name when h c moved to th e Res idency than " Iri sh­man's Rise." After a ll , it a l 0 s tood on a wonderfu l hilltop .. . .. .

Thus Ca rco a lap ed into memor y, but with heJd unbowed, for some o[ the greate t names in Mala yan his­tory h ad been among its occupants. There was S ir Wi lli am Ta ylor, irre­veren tl y known as " Ikan Kring," who, th ey say, kept a tig ht g rip on th e cou ntr y' budge t and wo uld sanc­ti on no expcnditure that did n ot return a good dividend .

There was th e able S ir George Maxwell, s tili li v ing, wh o throve on a workin g day of 15 h ours a nd kn ew the country ins ide out. An d - well , it is a good lis t .... ..

" lIgc Sixly. f our

One spccics regrcttcd th c Jadc-o ut o r Carco:-a . They we re the sa tiri cH I vers ille r amo ng th c Malayan Civil Se rvice. Ca rcosa had prov idcd them with a tantali s ing but fru stratin g game bcca use it did not r hyme readily. For them th e age had n ot arrived which produccd s uch it useful la t-w ord for cy ni cs a " bull-dozer."

Through th e year. of th e Japan ese occupat ion and th e months of th e British mili tar y adm in i. trati on, Car­cosa r a ng to th e boot of sen ior officer. Its fl oo rs and rafte rs J1lU 'l t have s ig hed fo r th ose "good old days," wh en its s tables we re full o f whinn ying horses a nd th e park below redolent with blooms and bushes among whi ch co uld bc spi cd . am bhur dce r.

* * WHE th e c ivi l gove rnm ent wa

r e um ed on Ap ril 1, 194,6, it was no t Apr il Fool 's Day for Carcosa for then it ra ised its head again. It be­cam e once more th e h ome of th e Chief Sec reta ry, and a new individual named Briti sh Adv ise r went back to th e Res idency.

The firs t occupa nt was S ir A lec ewbou lt, and even th oug h th e furni -

The view from 'he first floor balcony of CarcOSlI . flou se looks ov er the Lake Gardens towards 'lt e ou tlin e of the main rClII .qe.

ture and furni shin g wer e utilitari a n and not quite what th ey are today , Ca rcosa came into its own again and lent itself handsomely to gay parti es and billi ards fiv es and dogs and horses_

It occ up ant ince th en have been S ir MOl'oboe del Tufo, S ir Donald MacGi lli vray, who after two years, moved down a few feet lower into Kin g's H ouse, and fin a ll y Sir Dav id Wath erston. H e closed th e chap ter o r Car cosa's pre-indepcndence his­to ry by acting as host to th e Duke of Glo uceste r, who came as representa­ti vc of H e r Maje ty th c Queen to present th e con tituti ona l in strum ents of fr eedom to th e Prime Min is ter oJ Malaya.

A nd , as a salute to th e fri end hip with Grea t Brilain , the new Govern ­mcnt pre ented CarcosJ to Britain to be used by her a. th e h ome of her High Commissione r.

So Ca rcosa, by this m agnanim ous ges ture, will not " Di e th ou, uns un g, as tea rs unshed shall dr y and d ic .in Los t Ca rco a ."

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA