ABSTRACT
The British policy during the "Little England Era" was, therefore, one of nonintervention in the Malay states. Throughout the half century from 1824, the British policy was to avoid intervention in the Malay states and extension of political control over them. The British government's policy of non-intervention in the Malay states, repeatedly enunciated in the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century, stood in the way of trading interests, which actively advocated in the late 1860s a vigorous course of action. The interest of the Singapore traders in the extension of British authority over the Malay states is clearly evident. In the second and third quarters of the nineteenth century, Britain was generally reluctant to extend its empire. The British extension of empire in Malaya thus presented a combination of most of the factors indicated as being responsible for late-nineteenth-century imperialism in Southeast Asia.
