Vrije koelies (free coolies — hired labourers) were the civilian labour force hired by the Dutch army in Atjeh to perform engineer and construction work under military cover, as distinct from the dwangarbeiders (forced labourers) used for similar work. The vrije koelies were hired on contract to work, not to fight; their tendency to flee under fire — and the consequent need for engineer officers to hold them to the work, “met de sabel in de vuist” — is a recurring feature of the engineer operations of the Atjeh-oorlog recorded in the 1944 biography of Generaal Snijders by Van den Berg.
Use in Atjeh
The vrije koelies were used in substantial numbers in the engineer operations of 1874–1875. At the Benting Kota Alam operation of 13 November 1874 Snijders commanded a section of Mineurs en Sappeurs in the vanguard, with 180 vrije koelies following under a light infantry screen with tools and materials. The coolies were hired “om te werken, doch niet om te vechten”; when the Atjehese fire erupted, “de vrije koelies, die gehuurd waren om te werken, doch niet om te vechten, en van wie in den loop van den middag één werd doodgeschoten en een andere gewond, toonden af en toe neiging om voor het hevige geweervuur op de vlucht te slaan, hetgeen SNIJDERS echter met de sabel in de vuist wist te verhinderen.” At the Missigit Longbatta operation of 1–13 January 13 January 1875 Snijders had about 100 vrije koelies in addition to a detachment of mineurs, of whom three were killed and twelve wounded during the work.
Distinction from Dwangarbeiders
The biographer Van den Berg distinguishes the vrije koelies from the dwangarbeiders (forced labourers) used in the later Lamara Olejlo fortification of 15 February 1875, where Snijders was given “een afdeeling van 100 dwangarbeiders” instead of vrije koelies. The distinction is preserved in the wording of the biographer and reflects a real difference in the labour regime of the two types of work. The vrije koelies were hired hands who could in principle leave; the dwangarbeiders were conscript or corvée labour who could not.
Snijders’ Working-Party Command
By the end of 1874 Snijders, in his peacetime Staf der Genie work at Kota Radja, “beschikte […] over zijne mineurs, over een groot aantal einde 1874 900 vrije koelies en soms bovendien nog over soldaten en dwangarbeiders” — that is, he commanded some 900 vrije koelies in addition to his mineurs, soldiers, and dwangarbeiders. The figure gives a sense of the scale of the peacetime engineer works at Kota Radja in the last months of the Atjeh-oorlog’s middle phase.
See Also
- Dwangarbeiders
- Cornelis Jacobus Snijders
- Benting Kota Alam operation (13 November 1874)
- Missigit Longbatta operation (31 December 1874 – 13 January 1875)
- Lamara Olejlo fortification (15 February 1875)
- Bataillon Mineurs en Sappeurs
- Aceh War
- 1874
- 1875
Source
D. van den Berg, Cornelis Jacobus Snijders (1852–1939): Een leven in dienst van zijn Land en zijn Volk (Voorburg: September 1944), pp. 25, 27, 29, 33. Koninklijke Bibliotheek shelfmark 0301 4872.