De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 1

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tagsdocument, colonial, dutch, administrative, encyclopaedisch-bureau, sumatra, buitenbezittingen, geography, climate, 1917
aliasesDe Buitenbezittingen Vol II Part 1, Sumatra Algemeene Hoofdstukken, Buitenbezittingen II-1, Encyclopaedisch Bureau Sumatra volume

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De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 1: Sumatra, Algemeene Hoofdstukken — published in 1917 by the Encyclopaedisch Bureau as Aflevering X of the Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen — is the second volume of the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s ten-year survey of the Buitenbezittingen and the opening instalment of the Bureau’s planned geographical survey of Sumatra. Printed at the Landsdrukkerij in Weltevreden and issued by the publisher v/h. G. C. T. van Dorp & Co. of Semarang–Soerabaia–‘s-Gravenhage, it is the most comprehensive published Dutch treatment of the orography, hydrography, climate, and indigenous administration of Sumatra as a whole, and is the principal pre-war reference for the physical and administrative geography of Atjeh and the other Sumatran gewesten.

Plan of the work

The Voorbericht explains the editorial plan. Volume I (the survey of general measures taken by the Department of Algemeen Bestuur toward the Buitenbezittingen, already published) was to be followed by gewestelijke beschrijvingen — regional descriptions — of each gewest in turn. For the great islands (Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas and the Lesser Sunda Islands) these regional descriptions would be issued in instalments. Each description was to be accompanied by an overzichtskaart of the gewest. As the first instalment of Deel II, the Bureau issued three “algemeene hoofdstukken” that would precede the Sumatra regional descriptions:

  • Hoofdstuk I — Oro-hydrographische beschrijving van het eiland Sumatra (pp. 1–38): the most detailed modern treatment of Sumatra’s mountain systems, river systems, lakes and coastal outline, compiled from the latest surveys, with an accompanying oro-hydrographical map at 1:2,500,000 (Bijlage I). The chapter names and locates the principal Atjeh features: the Atjehrivier, the Goudberg, the Lao Alas (Woi ni Agoesein), the Kroeëng Wojla (Inong Wojla), the Kroeëng Teunom (formed by the Geumpang and Tangsé rivers), the Krueng Meureubo, the Kroeëng Seunagan, the Peusanganrivier, the Kroeëng Keureutë, the Laut Tawar lake, the Gajoesche Centraalgebergte, the Koningin Wilhelmina gebergte, and the Poeloe Wè–Sabang island complex with its oceaanhaven.
  • Hoofdstuk II — Het Klimaat (pp. 39–57), by Dr. W. van Bemmelen: the first systematic modern climate description of Sumatra, dividing the island into seven longitudinal and transverse klimaat-provinciën and treating the Atjeh west coast, north coast, Sabang and inland highlands in detail.
  • Hoofdstuk III — De ontwikkeling van het Inlandsch Bestuur in de Buitenbezittingen (pp. 58–65 and following): a programmatic statement of the principles of the reorganisation of the indigenous civil administration then in progress, with explicit attention to the training of sons of Atjehsche hoofden for the bestuurswerkkring at the kweekschool te Fort de Koek (G.B. van 27 Juni 1916 No. 7).

Treatment of Atjeh

The Atjeh material in Deel II is not confined to a single chapter; it is distributed across all three algemeene hoofdstukken and constitutes the most concentrated Atjeh-geography of any pre-war Dutch survey:

  • Oro-hydrography. Atjeh’s rivers are treated under the Noord-Sumatra heading of the chapter on the groote Westelijke lengtedal. The Bureau names and locates the Atjehrivier as the northernmost segment of the great Westelijke lengtedal, flowing through the vruchtbare vlakte van Groot-Atjeh to the sea at Oelèë Lheuë near Koeta Radja. The Kroeëng (Atjehsch word for “river”) is glossed: “Kroeëng (Atjehsch.) = Woi (Gajo’sch.) = Lae (Dairisch) = Lao (Karo’sch.) = rivier.” The northern slope of the Barisan is sketched through the Gajoesche Centraalgebergte, the Wilhelmina gebergte (renamed in 1912 on the proposal of Dr. W. Volz, with the Kab. Res. van 5 September 1912 No. 17), and the Abong-Abong / Kembar / Bandahara / G. Loser / Poesoek Boehit knot. The Goudberg in Groot-Atjeh is identified as the volcano at which the eastern volcanic row terminates in the Poelolo Wè–Weesberg transverse ridge, and the Boer ni Telong–Boer ni Bilaans–Geureudong complex as the dormant volcanoes standing west of the Laut Tawar.
  • Climate. The Bureau’s climate chapter divides Atjeh into a Noordkust zone (with the Westelijke tak van the Noord-Oost-moesson bringing rain in November–December and the main regenmaximum falling in December), a Westkust zone (where the Barisan bends the Zuid-West moesson to Westen- and Noord-Westenwinden), and a binnenland zone (where the regenmaximum falls already in November at Takéngon and Blang Kédjérèn). The nevenmaximum in Noord-Atjeh falls in Mei, with a small stretch of Westkust (P. Raja, Tjalang) shifted to Juli. The Sabang regenmaximum falls in December.
  • Inlandsch Bestuur. The chapter on the indigenous civil administration notes the G.B. van 27 Juni 1916 No. 7, by which “tot het cursusjaar 1916/1917 ook aan de kweekschool voor Inlandsche onderwijzers te Fort de Koek hoogstens 20 zonen van Atjehsche hoofden konden worden opgeleid voor den bestuurswerkkring.” The Bureau observes that this provision is “not sufficient to meet the future need for trained Inlandsche bestuursambtenaren,” and that the training itself must be revised.

Significance

De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 1 is the indispensable geographical complement to the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s own Deel I survey of administrative measures 1904–1914 (which is the source for the existing Buitenbezittingen entry). Where Deel I presented the Buitenbezittingen as a coherent administrative and economic whole, Deel II grounds that whole in the physical reality of the island. For Atjeh in particular, the volume is the canonical printed source for the toponymy, hydrography and climatology of the residency on the eve of the pacification’s consolidation; its place-names and river-systems are the ones used by all subsequent Dutch colonial writing, including the staff history of the 1942 campaign that draws on the same toponymy a quarter-century later.

See Also

Source

De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 1: Sumatra, Algemeene Hoofdstukken, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen, Aflevering X (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), Voorbericht, Inhoud, and Hoofdstukken I–III (pp. 1–65 plus Bijlagen I–III).

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