General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh (1943)

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tagsdocument, book, biography, colonial, dutch, aceh, aceh-war, 20th-century
aliasesGeneraal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh, du Croo's Generaal Swart, Swart biography

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Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh was the biography of the Dutch lieutenant-general and Civil and Military Governor of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden H. N. A. Swart, written by M. H. du Croo, Kolonel K.N.I.L. b.d., with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Kolonel tit. K.N.I.L. b.d., with a foreword by His Excellency lieutenant-general K.N.I.L. b.d. G. K. Dijkstra, and published at Maastricht by N.V. Leiter-Nypels in 1943. Its title-page motto was “For courage, conduct, loyalty” — the device of the Militaire Willemsorde.

Purpose and character

In his foreword Dijkstra explicitly declined to treat the work as a life of Swart in the ordinary sense. Citing Dr. F. W. Stapel’s remark in the introduction to De Gouverneurs-Generaal van Nederlandsch-Indië that biographical works faithfully omit notices of the living, Dijkstra wrote that he regarded du Croo’s book “not as a biography of General Swart but as a broadly conceived description of the so-called Van Heutsz period with regard to the Outer Provinces* (“Outer Provinces”)” — not as a biography but as a broadly conceived description of the so-called Van Heutsz period with respect to the Buitengewesten.

Dijkstra wrote from personal knowledge: as captain, civil authority and simultaneously troop commander at Moeara Teweh, Paloppo and Sigli, he had experienced some six years of what he and his fellow “mindere goden” called the schoonmaaktijd under Swart as provincial administrative head. In Pidië he had only to follow the road indicated by tested predecessors, but even there the beacons had in some respects to be moved in governing “this self-assured and difficult people.” It became hard work; virtually everyone did it with zeal and cheerfulness, because the chief himself led the way. For at least half the time they were absent, and on returning to the station the accumulated office work and the ordinary business of the service took up a large part of the day. For their wives those were years of self-sacrifice, loneliness and worry.

Contents

The book is divided into seventeen chapters with appendices:

The appendices comprise the letter of the Acehnese chiefs in Malay with Dutch translation, the extract from Swart’s service record, and the list of works consulted. A map of Atjeh is bound at the front, showing the Straat Malaka, the Malacca Passage, the north, east and west coasts of Atjeh, the Indian Ocean, and the islands of P. Simeuloeë (P. Simaloer) and the Banjak-eilanden. The volume is illustrated with portraits of Swart’s principal collaborators and with photographs of the Governor’s residence at Koetaradja, the historic bell Tjakra Donja, the laying of the first stone of the Javasche Bank te Koetaradja in 1915, the 1913 meeting of the Governor with his civil and military administrative officials, and Swart’s journeys along the Gajòweg.

Significance

The book is the fullest connected Dutch narrative of the closing decade of the Atjeh-oorlog and of the transition from military to civil government in Atjeh, and preserves in quotation a great deal of material — Swart’s spoken recollections, extracts from the maandverslagen, the Koloniale Verslagen, private letters, and press articles — that would otherwise be dispersed or lost. Its bias is openly apologetic for Swart and for the Van Heutsz school, and its judgements of Van Daalen and of Snouck Hurgronje must be read as such.

See Also

Source

Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Titelpagina, Foreword, Inhoud, pp. VII–XII and passim.

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