The Convention of 24 January 1817 was the Anglo-Dutch agreement by which the financial disputes left unresolved by the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 13 August 1814 were referred to the decision of the European governments. Van der Kemp mentions the convention in passing, in the course of his account of the background to the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 17 March 1824; the text of the convention, he notes, may be found in Hoek’s Herstel at page 170 and in H. D. Levyssohn Norman’s Britsche Heerschappij at page 334.
Background
The treaty of 13 August 1814 had restored to the Netherlands the colonial possessions seized during the Napoleonic wars, but had left numerous financial disputes unsettled. Both sides claimed considerable sums, and no agreement could be reached on the ground in the East Indies. The convention of 24 January 1817 referred these disputes to Europe for resolution.
Significance
The convention opened the way to the broader revision of colonial relations that became the treaty of 17 March 1824. Van der Kemp notes that, in February 1817, Commissioner-General Elout (then a commissioner-general) recommended the exchange of Bencoolen for the Dutch factories in Hindostan — an idea that Falck and Fagel had already in 1814 agreed were of little value. The convention of 24 January 1817 thus stands at the head of the diplomatic chain that leads, through the concept-convention of 24 July 1820 and the Fagel-Elout negotiations of August 1820, to the first draft of 1824 treaty and ultimately to the treaty of 17 March 1824 — with its fateful Acheh reservation.
See Also
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1814)
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824)
- Fagel-Elout negotiations (August 1820)
- Concept-convention of 24 July 1820
- First draft of 1824 Anglo-Dutch treaty
- Anton Reinhard Falck
- Hendrik Fagel
- Elout
- Hoek
- Levyssohn Norman
- Bencoolen
- Hindostan
Source
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.