The Third Letter of Teuku Umar — reproduced as Annex V of Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96 and dated from Lampisang on 1 Dsoelkaidah 1313, equivalent to 23 April 1896 — was the last of the three letters from Teuku Umar (writing as Toekoe Oemar, T. Djohan) to the waarnemend Governor at Koeta-Radja before his formal dismissal by the 11. The letter reiterates Umar’s claim of unchanged allegiance while demanding the Royal decoration promised by Deijkerhoff, demands a signed declaration by the Queen of the Netherlands, the Governor-General at Batavia, the Governor of Atjeh, and the European princes via their consuls, and reiterates the demand for ƒ150,000 per month. The surviving copy of the letter is signed by De Secretaris Udo de Haes with the formula “for a true copy” (For a conformed copy), indicating that the document reached Kruisheer through the official Dutch archive rather than the original.
Background
By 23 April 1896 the diplomatic crisis around Umar had reached its decisive phase. The Regeeringscommissaris had been in Koeta Radja for just over two weeks; the buitenlinie had been progressively abandoned, with Biloel and Lamkoenjit evacuated on 12 April 1896, Anak-Galoeng, Lam-Barih, Lam-Soet and Senelop lifted on 17 April 1896, and the final outer posts of Kroeng Gloempang, Tjot Rang and Toengkoeb lifted on 20 April 1896. On 21 April 1896 the Regeeringscommissaris wrote to Kolonel Stemfoort thanking the troops for their “moed… volharding en trouwe plichtsbetrachting” (courage, perseverance, and faithful performance of duty) over the previous fourteen days.
Umar, surrounded at Lampisang by his increasingly unified coalition of hoeloebalang and teungkoe, was simultaneously attempting to negotiate with the Dutch and to extend his alliance. He was in contact with Panglima Polim of the XXII Moekims, whose letter to Tjot Poetoe reported that Polim was on his way to Lampisang. He had also authorised Soetan Ali as his intermediary with the Dutch. The Third Letter was written in this context — as the Regeeringscommissaris’s reply to the Second Letter was already in preparation.
Content
The Third Letter is the most demanding and most quixotic of the three. Umar opens by reiterating that his allegiance is unchanged — a formula the Dutch had already dismissed in their reply of 25 April 1896 as false. He then makes the central demand: the decoration, that is, the Royal knighthood promised by Deijkerhoff. To this he adds a new and extraordinary requirement — a signed declaration by the Queen of the Netherlands, the Governor-General at Batavia (i.e. Jhr. Van der Wijck), the Governor of Atjeh, and the European princes via their consuls. This demand — for an international guarantee signed by European sovereigns — was self-evidently impossible for the Dutch to meet and appears designed to be refused.
Umar reiterates the demand for ƒ150,000 per month from the Second Letter. He promises, in return, to handle war affairs himself and to hand the country over to the Kompeni when the war ends — a formulation that casts him as a quasi-sovereign ally rather than a Dutch-appointed officer. He refers to Soetan Ali as his authorised intermediary for any further negotiations. The letter was copied into the official Dutch archive by De Secretaris Udo de Haes under the formula “for a true copy” (For a conformed copy), confirming that the original was in Umar’s hand and reached the Dutch through the intermediary channel.
Reception and Aftermath
The Third Letter was the immediate trigger for the final Dutch decision. On 24 April 1896 a further letter of identical content from Umar to the bestuur was received. On 25 April 1896 the Regeeringscommissaris replied in writing with three articles: (1) Umar’s professions of unchanged loyalty were false, else he would have returned the geleende oorlogsmaterieel; (2) his professions of not wanting to fight the Government were equally false, else he would not have built versterkingen in the VI Moekims; (3) to be received in grace, Umar must by 26 April hand in all geleende oorlogsmaterieel, demolish the versterkingen, and submit anew. Umar’s reply on the morning of 26 April 1896 asked for a three-day extension without any definite promise; the Regeeringscommissaris denied the request the same day. On 26 April 1896 the 11 formally dismissed Umar from both his offices, and the Proclamation of 27 April 1896 announced the commencement of military operations against him.
Significance
The Third Letter marks the end of the diplomatic phase of the Umar crisis. Its catalogue of impossible demands — the Queen’s signature, the European princes’ consuls, the hereditary Panglima Prang for his son, the ƒ150,000 monthly subsidy, the Dutch provisioning of his forces — was self-evidently designed to be rejected, and was so rejected within three days. As a historical document, the letter reveals the full scope of Umar’s strategic ambition: not a return to Dutch favour on the old terms, but recognition as a quasi-sovereign ally whose authority over Groot-Atjeh would be internationally guaranteed. The survival of the letter in the official Dutch archive, copied under De Secretaris Udo de Haes’s “for a true copy” formula, gives it a particular evidentiary weight: it is the text the Dutch government itself used to justify the dismissal that followed.
See Also
- Teuku Umar
- Generaal-Majoor C. Deykerhoff
- Udo de Haes
- Soetan Ali
- Defection of Teuku Umar (29 March 1896)
- First Letter of Teuku Umar to the Governor of Atjeh (Bijlage II)
- Second Letter of Teuku Umar (12 April 1896)
- 11 (Bijlage VI)
- Government Telegram of 26 April 1896, No. 409
- Lampisang
- Panglima Prang Besar
- 1896
Source
ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, pp. 13 (TOC), 14, 141, 344–345.