The Verklaringen van de kustvorsten van Atjeh (Declarations of the coastal princes of Atjeh) were the standardised eighteen-article instruments by which the rulers of the coastal landschappen of Atjeh acknowledged the sovereignty of the Netherlands and their subordination to Dutch authority. In the Atjeh debate the Minister of Colonies J. T. Cremer returned to the chamber on 17 November 1897 expressly to place these declarations on record, holding that their existence was “onvermijdelijk in het licht” te stellen for a right understanding of the Dutch position in Atjeh.
Number and date
Cremer stated that there were “niet minder dan 62 vorsten” (no fewer than sixty-two princes) on that coast, and that with them treaties had been concluded, or rather that these princes had made declarations concerning their subordination to Dutch authority. The declarations had not been obtained by any single general measure but gradually, “naarmate onze invloed op de kust zich uitbreidde” (as our influence on the coast extended), from 1885 onward and into the most recent years. Among them was the ruler of Perlak, whose rijk had been named in the debate the day before by Troelstra, and who had recognised Dutch sovereignty since 1885–1886. Cremer said he had not been able to ascertain whether any petty princes remained who did not recognise Dutch sovereignty, but that if any existed they were certainly exceptions.
The first article
Cremer read the opening article into the record: “Ik verklaar dat het landschap … behoort tot het grondgebied van Nederlandsch-Indië en dat ik mitsdien Hare Majesteit de Koningin der Nederlanden, vertegenwoordigd door Zijne Excellentie den Gouverneur-Generaal van Nederlandsch-Indië, als wettige souverein erken, ten teeken waarvan door mij en mijne onderdanen, hetzij te land, hetzij ter zee, geen andere vlag zal worden gevoerd dan de Nederlandsche.”
Rendered: I declare that the landschap … belongs to the territory of Netherlands India and that I accordingly recognise Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands, represented by His Excellency the Governor-General of Netherlands India, as lawful sovereign, in token whereof no other flag than the Netherlands flag shall be flown by me and my subjects, whether by land or by sea.
Fiscal and administrative provisions
Cremer declined to weary the chamber with the reading of all eighteen articles, which had been communicated to both chambers of the Staten-Generaal and were therefore public, but summarised their effect: in almost every branch of administration the decision rested with the Dutch. Among the specific provisions he named were that taxes levied in those territories might be neither raised nor lowered except in consultation with the representative of the Netherlands Indies Government in Atjeh; that the Government had the right to take over the revenues of those territories arising from the levy of import and export duties, against compensation to be determined later, and to draw the proceeds; that the Government had the right to take over the farming of taxes in those districts; and that the princes should pay over to the Government the share in the revenues of their territory which “volgens aloud gebruik” (according to ancient usage) had accrued to the former Acehnese sovereigns.
Significance in the debate
Cremer’s purpose in reciting the declarations was to correct what he held to be the standing distortion of the Atjeh question: “men let alleen op het gebied van Groot-Atjeh, terwijl men het veel grooter gebied der kust vergeet, dat bijna geheel onder onze souvereiniteit staat” — attention is fixed solely on the territory of Greater Atjeh, while the far larger territory of the coast is forgotten, which stands almost wholly under Dutch sovereignty by virtue of the princes’ declarations, and over which supreme authority was exercised principally through the scheepvaartregeling as regulated under Minister Van Dedem.
The declarations were thus the legal foundation of the coastal system that Cremer defended, and the counterpart to the military system of mobile columns operating in the valley of Groot-Atjeh.
See Also
- J. T. Cremer
- Scheepvaartregeling
- Van Dedem
- Perlak
- Groot-Atjeh
- Atjeh debate in the Tweede Kamer (16-17 November 1897)
- Kustvorsten van Atjeh
- 1885
- 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. 59–60.
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.