The Arrival of Kolonel C. J. P. van Vliet as Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden on 8 November 1896 — aankomst van den nieuw benoemden Civiel- en Militairen Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden den kolonel C. J. P. van Vliet op 8 November — was the arrival of the newly-appointed governor at Koeta-Radja, nine days before the formal handover from Kolonel Stemfoort on 17 November 1896. The arrival of Van Vliet opened Hoofdstuk IV of Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96 — Tweede Deel and marked the beginning of the transition from Stemfoort’s second tenure to Van Vliet’s governorship. The appointment of Van Vliet — a Kolonel (Colonel) of the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, with a portrait opposite page 145 of the volume — represented the formal closure of the post-De Moulin transitional arrangement and the restoration of the regular Civiel en Militair Gouverneur office under a permanent (rather than acting) incumbent.
The Appointment and the Instruction
The appointment of Kolonel Van Vliet to the governorship of Atjeh was made by the Opperbestuur (Supreme Government) in the autumn of 1896, in succession to the late Generaal-Majoor De Moulin (who had died on 7 July 1896) and the acting governor Stemfoort (who had served since 11 July 1896). The appointment was accompanied by the issue of a formal Instruction for the Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van A. en O., den kolonel C. P. J. van Vliet — preserved as Bijlage III of ATJEH ‘96 — Tweede Deel (pp. 168–172). The Instruction — which explicitly de Instruction door den Regeeringscommissaris voor Atjeh- en Onderhoorigheden bij zijn vertrek uit genoemd gewest achtergelaten in zijnen brief van 27 Juni 1896, No. 212, zeer geheim, [wordt] ingetrokken, terwijl de tegenwoordige Instructie tevens in de plaats treedt van het afgesprokene in de conferentie van den Landvoogd met den Generaal-Majoor J. J. K. de Moulin op 18 Juni 1896 en het opgedragene in het regeerings-telegram van 17 Juli 1896, No. 273 — replaced all prior instructions and consolidated the policy framework within which Van Vliet was to govern. The Instruction was thus the definitive policy document for the Atjeh governorship, superseding both the Vetter instruction of 28 June 1896 and the De Moulin conference of 18 June 1896.
The Portrait in ATJEH ‘96 — Tweede Deel
A portrait of Kolonel C. P. J. van Vliet appears in ATJEH ‘96 — Tweede Deel opposite page 145 — the opening page of Hoofdstuk IV. The portrait is one of the six portraits bound into the volume, and was prepared in anticipation of Van Vliet’s tenure as governor — making its presence, opposite the very page that records his arrival, a counterpart to the tragic portrait of De Moulin opposite page 15. The placement of Van Vliet’s portrait at the opening of Hoofdstuk IV thus marks the formal transition from the post-De Moulin transitional period (covered in Hoofdstuk III) to the Van Vliet governorship (covered in Hoofdstuk IV).
The Handover of 17 November 1896
The arrival of Van Vliet on 8 November 1896 was followed, nine days later, by the formal handover of command on 17 November 1896 — overgave en overname van het bestuur, Kolonel J. W. Stemfoort keert naar Java terug — at which Stemfoort returned to Java and Van Vliet formally assumed the governorship. The nine-day interval between Van Vliet’s arrival and the formal handover was presumably used for the briefing of the new governor by Stemfoort and the senior Dutch officers, and for the orientation of Van Vliet with the current state of the operations. The handover of 17 November 1896 closed Stemfoort’s second tenure — which had lasted four months and six days, from 11 July to 17 November 1896 — and opened the Van Vliet governorship, which would last until 1898.
Significance
The Arrival of Van Vliet on 8 November 1896 is significant in the documentary record of ATJEH ‘96 — Tweede Deel as the opening event of Hoofdstuk IV and the beginning of the transition from Stemfoort’s second tenure to the Van Vliet governorship. The arrival — accompanied by the issue of the Instruction for the Civiel en Militair Gouverneur van A. en O. (preserved as Bijlage III) — represented the formal closure of the post-De Moulin transitional arrangement and the restoration of the regular Civiel en Militair Gouverneur office under a permanent incumbent. The Van Vliet governorship — which would last until 1898, when Van Vliet would be succeeded by Van Heutsz — was the bridge between the pacificatie (pacification) of the second semester of 1896 and the decisive korte oorlog phase of the Atjeh-oorlog, and the Instruction of Bijlage III was the definitive policy document within which that bridge would be constructed.
See Also
- ATJEH ‘96 — Tweede Deel (book by A. Kruisheer)
- C. P. J. van Vliet
- J. W. Stemfoort
- J. J. K. de Moulin
- Jhr. C. H. A. van der Wijck
- Handover of Command from Stemfoort to Van Vliet (17 November 1896)
- Instruction for Civiel en Militair Gouverneur Van Vliet
- Stemfoort’s Second Tenure as Civiel en Militair Gouverneur (11 July – 17 November 1896)
- Civiel en Militair Gouverneur
- Koeta Radja
- Aceh War
- 1896
- 8 November
- 1913
Source
ATJEH ‘96. Tweede Deel (2c Deel), door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 3 kaarten en 6 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-90-Atjeh_96_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_3_kaarten_en_6_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt., pp. 9, 145, 168–172 (Bijlage III — Instruction for Civiel en Militair Gouverneur Van Vliet).