The attack on lieutenant G. F. P. Gosenson at Djeuram on 29 December 1917 was, in du Croo’s judgement, “a serious attack, because it had a political background” — the one incident of the later pacification years that was genuinely political rather than personal in origin.
The attack
The attack was committed by some young Acehnese of Seunagan on the bivouac commander of Djeuram in the Meulaboh district, 1ste luitenant G. F. P. Gosenson, who was returning with a few marechaussée from an elephant hunt undertaken at the request of the inhabitants of Goenòng Balè.
Gosenson was severely wounded by a klewang blow straight across the face, by which he remained disfigured for life, and by a cut across the thigh. He and his marechaussée, though all wounded, laid the three attackers low.
The investigation
The investigation, conducted by H. J. Schmidt, brought to light that the notorious Tgk. Poeti’, through the intervention of a certain krani (clerk) Hamit, had organised the attack with the intention of causing resistance in Seunagan to break out again.
Tgk. Poeti’ was arrested and banished; “order was not disturbed.”
Significance
The attack on Gosenson was one of the “zware tegenslagen” that H. N. A. Swart had to absorb alone at his high and lonely post — du Croo names it with the murder of Scheepens and the flare-up of resistance in the Daja districts as one of the three heaviest blows of the governorship — “but none of his people ever observed a wavering in his self-confidence, a disturbance of his composure, or a stiffening of his cheerfulness.”
Gosenson survived, was made Knight of the Militaire Willemsorde, and later became, as colonel, Provincial Military Commander of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden. Tgk. Poeti’ — who had submitted with all his teungkoes, panglimas and sixty followers in December 1910 — thereby ended his career for the second and last time.
See Also
- G. F. P. Gosenson
- Tgk. Poeti’
- H. J. Schmidt
- H. N. A. Swart
- Seunagan
- Djeuram
- Meulaboh
- The resistance in Atjeh 1913–1918
- 1917
Source
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 X, p. 94; Chapter XI, p. 112; Chapter XII, pp. 121–122; Chapter XVI, illustration p. 149.