The communistische opstand ter Sumatra’s Westkust was the communist rising which broke out on Sumatra’s West Coast shortly after the arrival there of the former Maréchaussée officer W. V. Rhemrev in 1926, and which he suppressed by vigorous action.
Rhemrev’s posting and the outbreak
The 1930 Maréchaussée jubilee number records that in 1926 Rhemrev was sent to Sumatra’s West Coast, and that shortly after his arrival “brak daar de communistische opstand uit, die hij met krachtig optreden wist te onderdrukken” — the communist rising broke out there, which he managed to suppress with vigorous action.
Recognition
The Landvoogd (the Governor-General) sent Rhemrev a telegram of congratulation, and he received his third decoration: appointment as Officer in the Orde van Oranje Nassau with the swords. At the same time, however, he was placed on the army reserve.
Context
The rising fell in the same period as the Westkust action in Atjeh of 1925–1927, in which Captain J. Paris was killed and to which Colonel L. A. Snell was despatched from Java. The jubilee number treats Rhemrev’s suppression of the West Sumatra rising as one of the instances in which officers trained in the Korps Maréchaussée proved their value outside Atjeh.
See Also
Source
Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh: De Atjehsche Garde, 1890 - 2 April 1930, Extra Jubileum-nummer of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië issued for the fortieth anniversary of the corps (1930), pp. 1-16. Offprint DLP-143, Bibliotheek KITLV, accession 621 116 794.