Van Lansberge’s letters on the Selimoen tocht were the two communications exchanged in August 1879 between the Governor-General of the Netherlands Indies, J. W. van Lansberge, and the Governor and Military Commander of Atjeh, Generaal K. van der Heijden, concerning the march against Selimoen — a letter of 7 August 1879 expressing the Governor-General’s grave misgivings before the fact, and a telegram of 21 August 1879 conceding its complete justification after the fact. Both are quoted, as evidence of the political hazard the General had accepted, in a footnote of W. Cool and G. B. Hooijer’s Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis (1889), pp. 54–55 footnote 1.
The letter of 7 August 1879
“It is known,” the authors wrote, “that the Governor-General Van Lansberge had a heavy heart (een zwaar hoofd) in this tocht.” Quoting the Governor-General’s letter of 7 August 1879 to Van der Heijden:
“Ik hoop dan ook … dat de zaak goed zal afloopen, want in geval van échec zou ik mijne afkeuring moeten kenbaar maken over een tocht, die in strijd is met uwe instructien.”
— “I hope then that the affair will end well, for in case of failure I should have to make known my disapproval of a tocht which is in conflict with your instructions.” The warning fixed the political position precisely: the advance against Selimoen was undertaken on Van der Heijden’s own judgement, and its failure would have been answered by an official disavowal.
The telegram of 21 August 1879
The sequel, the authors recorded, made all good: on 21 August 1879 — the day after the formal submission of Toekoe Moeda Daud and a week after the occupation of Selimoen — the Governor-General answered Van der Heijden’s telegraphic report of the favourable outcome:
“Schoon ik, zooals u weet, oorspronkelijk niet ingenomen was met den tocht naar Selimoen, moet ik na de door u ontvangen inlichtingen bekennen, dat daartoe alle aanleiding bestond, en doet het mij genoegen, dat door u zoo voortvarend en krachtig gehandeld is, zoo geheel overeenkomstig mijne denkbeelden, en de u door mij gegeven instructien!”
— “Although I, as you know, was originally not favourably disposed towards the tocht to Selimoen, I must after the information received from you acknowledge that there was every ground for it, and it gives me pleasure that you have acted so vigorously and forcefully, so entirely in conformity with my views and with the instructions given you by me!”
Significance
The exchange is the documentary core of the “splendid page” argument of the book: the Selimoen tocht was, deliberately and against the stated reluctance of the Governor-General, an act of command initiative by Van der Heijden — “Het succes echter maakte ook hier alles goed,” success made all good. It belongs to the same documented tension between Buitenzorg and Atjeh as Van der Heijden’s second closure of the Atjeh harbours, notified by telegram of 5 July 1879, likewise on his personal responsibility.
See Also
- Johan Willem van Lansberge
- General van der Heijden
- Selimoen Expedition (August 1879)
- Submission of Toekoe Moeda Daoed (August 1879)
- March order for the Selimoen expedition (11 August 1879)
- Selimoen
- Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis (Cool & Hooijer, 1889)
- 1879
Source
Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis, door W. Cool en G. B. Hooijer (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1889), pp. 54-55, footnote 1. OCR-filename: 20260720_115822_DLP-135-Eene_schoone_bladzijde_uit_Atjeh_s_geschiedenis_Nemotron_OCR_v2_OCR.txt.