But the
same principles have been everywhere applied in their case also. The
backbone of the administrative and judicial system has been constituted
by the small staff of English officers carefully chosen by the Rajah,
and increased from time to time as the extension of the boundaries of
Sarawak opened new fields for their activities. During recent years
this administrative staff has counted some fifty to sixty English
members. Of these about a dozen are quartered in Kuching, namely,
the Resident of the first division, his assistant, a second-class
Resident, and the heads of the principal departments, the post office,
police and prisons, the treasury, the department of lands and surveys,
public works, education, and the rangers.
The Sarawak rangers are a body of some 400 men trained to the use of
fire-arms and under military discipline. The majority are Sea Dayaks,
the remainder Malays and Sikhs. Two white officers, the commandant
and the gunnery instructor, are supported by native non-commissioned
officers. The force is recruited by voluntary enlistment, the men
joining in the first place for five years' service. This force supplies
the garrisons of the small forts, one or more of which are maintained
in each district; and from it a small body of riflemen has commonly
been drawn to form the nucleus of any expeditionary force required
for punitive operations.
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