The Scheepvaartregeling of 1892 — in Kreemer’s history, the Dutch shipping regulation for Atjèh — was, in Kreemer’s account, a pacificatie-maatregel (pacification measure) of governor C. Deijkerhoff’s administration, whose significance “zonder haar voorgeschiedenis niet is te kennen” — “cannot be understood without its pre-history.” The regulation was the instrument by which the Dutch sought, after the abandonment of the concentration blockade in 1885, to control the flow of goods and arms to the Atjèhnese resistance through the licensing of coastal shipping.
The pre-history: the abandonment of the blockade
Kreemer records that the concentration policy of 1884 had three principles: the contraction of the occupied territory, the restriction of Dutch interference in the Onderhoorigheden, and a strict blockade of the coast. The third principle — “het krachtige deel van het programma” — “the strong part of the programme” — was already abandoned in May 1885, only the weak-passive part (the concentration itself) being maintained. “Behalve ten opzichte van opium en krijgsbehoeften was de handel nu dus geheel vrij. Natuurlijk kwam dit de verzetspartij weer ten goede, daat het voorname middel, dat haar nog ontbrak — overvloed van geldmiddelen — haar nu overvloedig toevloeide” — “Except regarding opium and war-materials, trade was now wholly free. Naturally this again benefited the resistance-party, since the principal means that it still lacked — abundance of financial means — now flowed to it abundantly.”
The 1892 regulation
The Scheepvaartregeling of 1892, introduced under governor Deijkerhoff, was the Dutch response to the failure of the abandoned blockade. As a pacification measure, it sought to control — by licensing — the coastal shipping that had, since 1885, freely supplied the resistance. Kreemer notes that the literature on the regulation includes G. A. Scherer’s Hoe moet Atjèh gepacificeerd worden?, J. B. van Heutsz’s De onderwerping van Atjèh, W. C. Nieuwenhuyzen’s De politiek van den oorlog in Atjèh (Ind. Milit. Tijdschr. 1897 dl. II p. 819 vg.) and the same author’s De Atjèhsche scheepvaartregeling (p. 541 vg.), and Mr. J. H. Boudewijnse’s Atjèh (p. 121 vg.).
Significance
The Scheepvaartregeling is, in Kreemer’s narrative, an attempt to repair — by administrative regulation — the damage done by the abandonment of the concentration blockade of 1885. Its introduction in 1892 — eight years after the blockade’s abandonment — is a measure of how slowly the Dutch government recognised the strategic consequences of its own policy. The regulation would remain, throughout the Oema-period and into the final period of the war, one of the principal instruments of Dutch economic warfare against the Atjèhnese resistance.
See Also
- Acheh
- Deijkerhoff
- Concentration system (1884-1896) — Kreemer’s account
- Oema-periode (1893-1896)
- G. A. Scherer
- Governor Van Heutsz
- W. C. Nieuwenhuyzen
- Aceh War
- 1892
Source
Atjèh. Algemeen samenvattend overzicht van land en volk van Atjèh en onderhoorigheden, door J. Kreemer, Archivaris van het Atjèh Instituut. Eerste Deel. Leiden: N.V. Boekhandel en Drukkerij voorheen E.J. Brill, 1922. Hoofdstuk I, C (“Atjèh-oorlog (1873—1910)”), Zesde tijdvak, blz. 28, n. 4.