Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh: De Atjehsche Garde, 1890 - 2 April 1930 was the Extra Jubileum-nummer (special anniversary issue) of the Batavia daily Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië, published for the fortieth anniversary of the Korps Maréchaussée te voet in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden and for the award to that corps of a vaandel (colour or standard) by Queen Wilhelmina. Sixteen pages long, it carried on its masthead the motto “La garde meurt, mais ne se rend pas!” — “the guard dies, but does not surrender” — the phrase poetically attributed to Cambronne, and styled the corps De Atjehsche Garde, “the Atjehnese Guard.”
The issue combined an unsigned editorial history of the corps, a signed interview with Colonel L. A. Snell conducted on the eve of the jubilee, a personal memoir by the former maréchaussée W. J. Mosselman, portrait notices of decorated officers and non-commissioned officers, and a complete Overzicht van Onderscheidingen — the register of honours conferred on the corps between 1890 and 1930.
Occasion and purpose
The occasion was twofold: the fortieth anniversary of the corps’s establishment by Gouvernementsbesluit of April 1890, and the grant by the Queen of the right to carry a colour. The editorial quoted the wording of the koninklijk besluit (royal decree): the right was conferred “aangezien het Korps Maréchaussée van Atjeh sedert de oprichting een belangrijke rol heeft vervuld bij de vertegenwoordiging en handhaving van het Nederlandsch Gezag” — since the Corps Maréchaussée of Atjeh had from its foundation fulfilled an important role in the representation and maintenance of Netherlands authority.
The editors of the Hoofdredactie explained why they devoted a special number to the event. The name Maréchaussée, they wrote, was “in ons Leger meer dan een klank” — in our army more than a mere sound; the word made the ears prick up and expressed a kind of hero-worship. On seeing a soldier whose breast was decorated with the knight’s cross of the Militaire Willems-Orde, the thought forced itself upon the observer: “hij heeft stellig bij de Maréchaussée gediend!” — he has surely served with the Maréchaussée. Maréchaussée and ridder (knight) had, they said, become well-nigh synonymous.
The editorial anticipated that a proper gedenkboek (memorial volume) would one day be issued, since the rendering of the corps’s history in a daily newspaper could be no more than a general survey. A note of the editors recorded that the forthcoming number of the Indisch Militair Tijdschrift would be devoted entirely to the corps.
Contents
The issue comprised:
- INLEIDING — the editorial introduction, setting out the origin of the corps in the Gouvernementsbesluit of April 1890 and the terms of the royal grant of the colour.
- De Geschiedenis — the narrative history of the corps from the concentratie decision of 19 August 1884 through the pacification, the action at Anagaloeng of 29 June 1896, the Pidië Expedition of 1898, the subjection of Peusangan and Pase in 1899, the excursion into the Samalangasche, the march to the Gajo-Loeös of 1904, and the Westkust action of 1925–1927.
- De Atjeh-Strijd and Schitterende Wapenfeiten — sections on pay, uniform, armament and notable feats of arms.
- Buiten Atjeh — the corps’s service outside Atjeh, in the Zuider- en Oosterafdeeling van Borneo.
- Een boom met “Old Hand” — the interview with Colonel L. A. Snell, continued from page 7 to page 10.
- Herinnering van een oud-Maréchaussee — the memoir of W. J. Mosselman, opening with the corps song O, marsausee.
- Portrait notices of W. V. Rhemrev, W. H. Loef, F. Ch. Frank, Kapitein F. Darlang, K. van der Maaten, H. Christoffel, L. Dersjant and J. C. Heijnen.
- Overzicht van Onderscheidingen — the register of decorations, pages 15–16.
Editorial standpoint
The issue was written from an explicitly celebratory colonial standpoint, and its language should be read accordingly. It described the corps as having “den schrik” — terror — brought into the population of Atjeh by continual patrolling, and presented the pacification as the foundation of order, peace and prosperity. At the same time it recorded, through the mouth of Colonel Snell, a markedly more reflective judgement: that the Atjehnese people was “onderworpen, doch niet verzoend” — subjected, but not reconciled — and that the Netherlands had done the Atjehnese people “leed, zeer veel leed” (harm, very much harm) which it was the duty of the younger generation to make good.
The number also carried, in Mosselman’s memoir, a bitter passage on the neglect of the corps’s disabled and pensioned indigenous veterans, described as having been carried off “als vergeten cadavers” — as forgotten corpses — under the tag “De Moor had zijn plicht gedaan, de Moor kon gaan” (the Moor had done his duty, the Moor could go), and calling their treatment a matter of Eereschuld, a debt of honour.
Authorities cited
The editorial noted that many pages of the works of Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, G. B. Hooyer, A. Kruisheer, J. C. J. Kempees and other writers on Atjeh were filled with the history of feats of arms performed by the Korps Maréchaussée.
See Also
- Korps Maréchaussée te voet in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië
- Uitreiking van het vaandel aan het Korps Maréchaussée (2 April 1930)
- Overzicht van Onderscheidingen toegekend aan het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (1890-1930)
- L. A. Snell
- W. J. Mosselman
- Kerkhof Peutjoet
- 1930
Source
Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh: De Atjehsche Garde, 1890 - 2 April 1930, Extra Jubileum-nummer of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië issued for the fortieth anniversary of the corps (1930), pp. 1-16. Offprint DLP-143, Bibliotheek KITLV, accession 621 116 794.