Post and telegraph in Atjeh — from the first telegraph wire between Koeta Radja and Oelèë Lheue (20 March 1875) through the enemy-clipped lines of the Concentration to the land-line Oelèë Lheue–Medan (1912), the wireless station on Poelò We (1912) and the government telephone net of 1913 — became, with the enlargement of the post offices after the Sabang mail connection of 1903, one of the most visible services of the administration.
Telegraph and telephone
The first telegraphic connection of the province was that between Koeta Radja and the debarkation place Oelèë Lheue, approved with the works of 26 June 1874 and set into operation on 20 March 1875. In the Concentration years the hostile destruction of telephone lines, railways and bridges was the favourite enemy tactic (almost ended by 1891, “beschadiging aan telefoonleidingen, spoorlijnen en bruggen kwam in 1891 bijna niet meer voor”). Under Van Heutsz a telephone connection came over the watershed with Sigli and further along the North Coast. The post- and telegraph-service was importantly extended in the period 1908–1918: in 1912 a land-line from Oelèë Lheue to Medan came into being; in 1914 a telegraphic connection from Sinabang over Tapa Toean to Singkel came into exploitation; and in 1912 a station for wireless telegraphy was erected at Lë Meulè on Poelò We, serving the shipping traffic — “reeds spoedig werd hiervan een druk gebruik gemaakt” (“very soon busy use was made of it”). The telephone net laid by the Genie in the province was steadily improved and extended, so that “all government establishments, two only excepted, are connected telephonically”; in 1913 it passed to the Department of Home Administration as a government telephone net (bestuurstelefoonnet), exploited for the time being by the provincial engineer-service.
Post offices and mail service
The inclusion of Sabang in the mail service (1903) brought Atjeh into the direct mail connection with Europe; the post offices at Sabang, Oelèë Lheue and Koeta Radja were enlarged and equipped for the full mail- and parcel-service (see Inauguration of the Sabang mail service (1903)). The increasing post traffic made the foundation of post- and telegraph-offices at Sigli, Langsa, Koeala Simpang and Sinabang necessary, while help-post-offices arose on the remaining government establishments. At Tapa Toean and in the K.P.M. ports the shipping companies kept their own agencies (see Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij); Koeta Radja and Medan were linked from 1919 also by the through railway communications of the Atjeh Tram to the Deli net.
See Also
- Government of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Atjeh Tram
- Inauguration of the Sabang mail service (1903)
- Koeta Radja
Source
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 31, 63, 80, 86–87, 108–109.