The concentration decision was the resolution, taken in the geheime Kamerzittingen (secret sessions) of the States General of 16 June and 17 June 1884, to carry out the concentration in Groot-Atjeh — the withdrawal of the Dutch garrisons from the outer posts into a limited fortified ring around Kota Radja and Oleh-leh. As was later made known, the decision had been demanded by the most disastrous exposure of the true state of Atjeh in the Nisero question, and was recommended in secret by advisers whose names the nation was not allowed to know. It was only later that the Dutch public learned, as Verstege recorded in January 1886, that the actual concentration had been decided in those secret June sittings, while the nation was kept in the dark as long as possible and, on 19 August 1884, the Governor-General van Rees still addressed to the Indies princes and the population of the dependencies of Atjeh the proclamation in which he swore that the foolish attackers “er nooit in zullen slagen ons een enkelen stap terug te dringen” (“shall never succeed in driving us back a single step”) — while the preparation of the retreat was already in full swing. The homonymous command by which the measure was executed in Atjeh was a separate act of 19 August 1884 (see Concentratiebesluit (19 Augustus 1884)). Verstege adds that even the composition of the secret advising body remained unrevealed in 1886, though it was rumoured that the then Minister of Colonies — serving as member of the Raad van Indië at that time — as well as governor Laging Tobias and kolonel Demmeni, had advised against the concentration.
See Also
- Concentratie-stelsel (1884-1896)
- Concentratiebesluit (19 Augustus 1884)
- Nisero affair (1883–1885)
- O. van Rees
- 1884
- P. F. Laging Tobias
Source
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. 75-80. OCR-filename: 20260801_235605_DLP-158-Een_beroep_op_het_Nederlandsche_volk_in_zake_het_Atjeh_vraagstuk_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.