The Outstation

“The Outstation” (1926) is a short story by the English playwright and author W. Somerset Maugham. Like all of the stories included in Maugham’s 1926 short story collection, The Casuarina Tree, “The Outstation” is set in the Federated Malay States, a British colony bordering the South China Sea. The story details the heated rivalry between two British officers, which ends in bloodshed.

At a distant outstation in Borneo, British Resident Officer Mr. Warburton awaits the arrival of Allen Cooper, a new assistant being sent in from Great Britain. With little confidence in the native subordinates under his command, Mr. Warburton looks forward to having another man of European descent to help him with the duties of the station. That said, years of operating remote stations during and after World War I have caused the officer to grow accustomed to loneliness, and therefore, he has mixed feelings about the arrival of the new clerk.

Upon seeing Cooper for the first time, Warburton is not terribly impressed. He finds the younger Cooper to be shabby and overly familiar. After showing the arrival to his bungalow, Warburton admits to himself that he shouldn’t judge too harshly the appearance of a man who has spent the last forty-eight hours huddled in a cramped boating vessel, concluding, instead, to make a more accurate appraisal when the two men meet for dinner later in the evening. But to Warburton’s dismay, Cooper arrives wearing the same filthy khaki outfit he had on when he stepped off the boat, a sharp contrast to Warburton who is groomed and dressed as if he were dining at an officer’s club. In turn, Cooper is mystified by his new boss’s insistence that he, too, embrace the same habits of cleanliness and orderliness, despite the fact that they are thousands of miles from white civilization. Warburton, growing angrier by the moment, attempts to explain this fussiness to his new companion.



Born in Barbados to a family with little fortune or distinction, Cooper has no patience for the English manners and traditions to which Warburton clings. Meanwhile, Warburton is his complete opposite in terms of attitude, pedigree, and personal history. A descendant of old English lords, Warburton inherited a sizable fortune at the age of twenty-one. Over the next decade, he squandered it on cards, horse-betting, and poor investments. Nevertheless, he handled his downfall with a measure of dignity and used his connections to obtain employment in Borneo, where he has manned various remote outstations for the past twenty years.

Over time, Warburton has, in fact, developed a great affection for the natives, in part because their modest dress and way of life contrast with his, thus emphasizing his own sense of superiority. Nevertheless, the affection is genuine. Cooper, on the other hand, treats the natives with great disdain. He seems to reserve equal hatred for those above his social station as he does for those below.

Nevertheless, Warburton finds his work competent and when the two meet for Sunday dinner—with Cooper dressed in a manner more to his boss’s liking—much of their former acrimony has dissipated. But the resentment between the two men remains at a slow simmer over the next two months, finally boiling over one day when Warburton returns from a three-week expedition to find that Cooper has read his newspapers in his absence. While an insignificant violation in Cooper’s eyes, the reading of the boss’s beloved newspapers is considered a monumental affront by Warburton. Warburton also learns that Cooper has driven away all his servants but one with his cruelty and ill-temper. In order to maintain tradition, Warburton orders the servants to return, which humiliates Cooper.



The two men’s rivalry comes to a head one day when Warburton countermands a particularly cruel order from Cooper. Warburton calls Cooper a cad, and Cooper calls Warburton a snob. The argument culminates with Warburton throwing a punch at Cooper, which the younger, stronger man easily dodges. Cooper walks away without further confrontation, unwilling to give Warburton an indisputable reason to have him fired. Warburton tries anyway, sending a letter to his representative, Richard Temple, requesting that Cooper be transferred. Temple cordially declines the request, and the subtext of Temple’s letter, despite its friendliness, is that Warburton should be less of a snob.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Cooper and his head servant, a boy named Abas, has reached a breaking point. Having already withheld wages from the boy, Cooper then accuses Abas of theft, throwing him down a flight of stairs and striking him in the face. Abas disappears, causing Cooper to fear that the boy will return to bury a knife in his back when he’s not looking. Indeed, Warburton finds Cooper murdered in his bed with a knife sticking out of his heart. While under normal circumstances the crime would demand an execution, Warburton chooses instead to imprison Abas only for a short while before inviting him into his domicile to be his servant.

“The Outstation” is a fascinating look at class and racial divisions in the British colonies.