The Koloniaal Verslag (Colonial Report) was the annual report on the state of the Netherlands colonies laid before the Staten-Generaal, and the principal statistical and narrative source used by all sides in the Atjeh debate of 16–17 November 1897.
Use in the debate of 1897
The Memorie van Antwoord referred the chamber to page 8 of the latest Koloniaal Verslag for its answer on the political and military objective attained in Atjeh, and to page 7 for the Royal authorisation by which a definite plan of action towards Atjeh had been adopted on the proposal of the previous minister and in accordance with the proposals of the Governor-General.
H. van Kol used the report against the government’s own case for the war. From the Koloniaal Verslag he cited the record that in 1896 two cases of piracy occurred at Japara, two on Madoera, and one each at Batavia, Soerabaya and Probolingo; and the statement of the Verslag of 1897 that on the Mentawei-eilanden prauws were “niet zelden” robbed and their crews murdered, “en wij kunnen deze euveldaden niet beletten.” He drew from this the argument set out at Van Kol’s refutation of the causes of the Atjeh-oorlog (1897) — that the Dutch punished in Atjeh what they tolerated in their own dependencies.
He cited it again on 17 November for the conduct of the war: “Het laatste Koloniaal Verslag spreekt meermalen van het in den asch leggen van kampongs, van het vernielen en verbranden der schuilhoeken en het uitroeien van bosschen, zoodat de bevolking alleen nog een toevlucht vond in de gespaarde kampongs.” — The latest Colonial Report speaks repeatedly of the laying of kampongs in ashes, of the destroying and burning of hiding-places and the extirpation of forests, so that the population found refuge only in the spared kampongs.
Verhey drew from the Koloniale Verslagen of 1896 and 1897 the figures of the beri-beri epidemic: 3,329 sufferers in 1895 and 3,412 in 1896; 132 Europeans and 877 natives invalided in 1896; 16 Europeans and 147 natives dead of the disease. He also stated that he confined himself, in judging the capacity of the Indies army to sustain the occupation, to the data appearing in the Koloniaal Verslag.
Van Vlijmen cited it for two matters: the statement of the governor of Atjeh that the time had not yet come to take over the rights or taxes of the coastal princes, which he took as proof that the matter had not been forgotten; and the case of the running in of war contraband at Simpang Anas.
Significance
Because the Koloniaal Verslag was the government’s own annual publication, its evidence could not be dismissed by either side. In 1897 it thus served simultaneously as the government’s warrant for claiming that quiet was returning to the districts the hostile bands no longer dared penetrate, and as the critics’ warrant for asserting that villages were being laid in ashes, forests extirpated and the garrison consumed by disease.
Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)
The report of 1908 recorded the difficulties over pepper advances and the resistance of the teungkoes and mothers to volksonderwijs; of 1910, the changed character of the resistance on the north coast and the new insight into the tribal basis of resistance in the Gajò Loeös; of 1913, that “in this province little more was to be observed during the period under report of resistance against authority” — the report scarcely filling one page; of 1915, “increasing confidence in the administration” and a smallpox epidemic on the north coast; of 1916, that the epidemic had been brought to a standstill and that the Sarekat Atjeh had been founded; of 1917, that “more and more the population is applying itself to the planting of rubber.”
Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943) (du Croo, 1943)
En zoo, al bladerende door Koloniale Verslagen (“Colonial Reports”) en Maandverslagen, du Croo wrote, “the reader turning the pages comes again and again upon a “little work of peace”, a piece of pacification.” See also Koloniaal Verslag and the Maandverslagen.
See Also
- Memorie van Antwoord on the Indies budget for 1898
- Voorloopig Verslag on the Indies budget for 1898
- H. van Kol
- J. B. Verhey
- Van Vlijmen
- Beri-beri epidemic in the Atjeh garrison
- Atjeh debate in the Tweede Kamer (16-17 November 1897)
- 1896
- 1897
- H. N. A. Swart
- General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh (1943)
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Atjeh
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. 6, 14, 17, 20, 29, 33–34, 47–48, 64.
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.
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), Chapter XI, XIII.