The Siak-tractaat — the treaty with Siak of 1858 (sometimes dated 1857) — was the Dutch colonial treaty that extended Dutch sovereignty over the entire east coast of Sumatra, bringing territories that Atjeh claimed as its dependencies under Dutch control. The treaty was cited during the Tweede Kamer debate of April 1874 as the first breach of the treaty of 1857 with Atjeh and the tractaat of 1824 with England.
The breach of Atjeh’s territory
Van Zuylen argued that the Netherlands had committed the greatest possible breach of the treaty of 1857 by bringing various lands belonging to Atjeh under Dutch sovereignty through the Siak-tractaat, one year after the treaty of friendship had been concluded. England had protested this precisely on the grounds that it violated the obligation to respect Atjeh’s independence assumed under the tractaat of 1824. The Sultan of Atjeh had never recognised the border changes effected by the Siak-tractaat.
Insinger noted that Nieuwenhuyzen, who had concluded the Siak-tractaat, was the most unwelcome person to come into contact with the Sultan of Atjeh — precisely because the Sultan had declared he did not wish to deal with the man who had altered Atjeh’s borders. Yet the Government had chosen Nieuwenhuyzen as gouvernements-commissaris, ignoring the governor of Sumatra’s Westkust who was the commissioner designated by the Siak-tractaat itself for all Dutch relations with Atjeh.
The Minister’s representation
Fransen van de Putte represented the Siak-tractaat as consistent with Dutch claims that had been maintained since the time of the VOC. Cremers supported this, arguing that the Netherlands had always maintained the same claims regarding the Siak territories. Van Zuylen countered that the Siak-tractaat constituted a breach of the 1824 and 1857 treaties regardless of the historical claims, and that England’s protest on precisely this ground demonstrated the breach’s reality.
The proof from the war itself
Van Zuylen cited as proof that the Siak-tractaat had wrongly claimed territories belonging to Atjeh the fact that various landschappen (territories) that the Netherlands had considered part of Siak had, after participating in the war of Atjeh, recognised Dutch sovereignty from their own free will — demonstrating that they had sided against the Netherlands from Atjeh out of free choice, not as subjects of Siak.
See Also
- T.N. Nieuwenhuyzen
- Netscher
- Tractaat van 1824 (Anglo-Dutch)
- Tractaat van 1857
- Sumatra-tractaat (1871)
- Declaration of war on Atjeh (1873)
- Tweede Kamer debate on Atjeh war origins (April 1874)
- Van Zuylen van Nyevelt
- Insinger
- Atjeh-oorlog (1873-1904)
Source
Verslag van het verhandelde in de vergaderingen der Tweede Kamer in comité-général van 16, 17, 18 en 20 April 1874: Oorlog met Atjeh, pp. 22–23, 28–30.