The Instructie aan den Regeeringscommissaris naar Atjeh was the instruction given in 1873 to the Regeeringscommissaris sent to Atjeh to communicate the Dutch grievances to the sultan, and — in the characterisation of H. van Kol — “tevens den oorlog uit te lokken” (and at the same time to provoke the war).
The argument from silence
Van Kol’s use of the document, in the Tweede Kamer on 17 November 1897, turned on what it did not contain. Piracy, he argued, was only a pretext brought in pour le besoin de la cause — glossed in the pamphlet as “om de zaak te redden”: “In de instructie aan den Regeeringscommissaris, die naar Atjeh werd gezonden om den sultan onze grieven mede te deelen en tevens den oorlog uit te lokken, is van zeeroof geene sprake. Wel van vrees van inmenging van vreemde Mogendheden.” — In the instruction to the Government Commissioner, who was sent to Atjeh to communicate our grievances to the sultan and at the same time to provoke the war, there is no mention of piracy. There is, however, of fear of the interference of foreign Powers.
He added that the official papers on “de aanleiding tot den Atjeh-oorlog,” carefully kept secret for eight years and afterwards published, were known to him also, and that this pretext “een verfoeilijk kluchtspel was.”
The mission itself
Van Kol had described the mission in his first speech on 16 November. The envoy was the Vice-President of the Council of the Indies, “een persoon die den Sultan antipathiek was, daar hij het tractaat van Siak had gesloten met een oproerigen vasal, waarbij den Sultan weer een stuk land werd ontnomen.” — a person antipathetic to the Sultan, since he had concluded the treaty of Siak with a rebellious vassal, by which a piece of land was again taken from the Sultan. This man was required to put to the aged prince of a land that had for centuries maintained its independence, and to the sultan of a people that tolerated no authority whatever, the demand to recognise within twenty-four hours the sovereignty of his hereditary enemy the King of the Netherlands.
“De schepen lagen gereed,” Van Kol continued, “en ondanks de tijd tot antwoorden aan den Sultan gelaten tot 29 Maart als ultimatum was vastgesteld, begon men reeds op 27 Maart de kust te bombardeeren en de bevolking neer te schieten.” — and although the time allowed the Sultan for his answer was fixed at 29 March as ultimatum, the bombardment of the coast and the shooting down of the population began already on 27 March.
See Also
- Regeeringscommissaris
- H. van Kol
- Vice-President van den Raad van Indië
- Van Kol’s refutation of the causes of the Atjeh-oorlog (1897)
- Comité-generaal van 1874
- Nota over de betrekkingen van Nederland tot het Rijk van Atjeh sedert 1824
- 1873
- 1897
Source
Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer: Debatten bij de behandeling der begrooting van Nederlandsch-Indië voor 1898, uitgave van de Sociaaldemokratische Arbeiderspartij in Nederland (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br P95-178, pp. 9, 62.
Acknowledgement of sources. The material in this article derives from Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer: Debatten bij de behandeling der begrooting van Nederlandsch-Indië voor 1898 (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.