The Dutch plenipotentiaries’ dispatch of 21 February 1824 — referred to by P. H. Van der Kemp as the Londensche depêche of 21 February 1824 — was the despatch sent by the Dutch plenipotentiaries Fagel and Falck from London to the Netherlands government reporting the sudden raising by the British plenipotentiaries of the 1819 British-Acheh convention concluded by Raffles. The dispatch recorded that, on the reading of the convention, the parties had “mutually recognised” it as incompatible with the new state of affairs and as not susceptible of express maintenance; reported the British concern that, should the sultans of Acheh be left to themselves, the United States of America would seek to establish themselves there; and suggested that the “readiest means” of averting this evil was for the Netherlands to stipulate with the Achehnese that they would never admit any establishment of a foreign power. The dispatch is printed by Van der Kemp from the Bijdragen of Elout (1863).
Background
By mid-February 1824 the Dutch plenipotentiaries had reached agreement with the British on a first draft of the treaty, dated 1 February 1824. The draft contained no provision concerning Acheh. While Captain Elout was on the point of departing for The Hague with the draft, the British plenipotentiaries Canning and Wynn unexpectedly disclosed the existence of the 1819 Acheh convention. Captain Elout was verbally instructed to bring this new incident personally to the King’s attention and to seek authorisation for the proposed Acheh reservation. The King’s authorisation of 13 February 1824 was issued on the day after Elout’s advice of 12 February.
On Captain Elout’s return to London, the British plenipotentiaries “brought the Acheh treaty to the table” on 23 February 1824 (see Raising of the Acheh treaty in London negotiations). The “venerable assembly was, on the reading of it, surprised”, for the convention contained article 6, excluding other Europeans and Americans from residence in Acheh and binding the sultan to make no treaty without British consent — provisions that went far beyond mere hospitality to shipwrecked mariners.
The dispatch
In their dispatch to The Hague of 21 February 1824 (a date that, as Van der Kemp notes, must be a slip for a later date, since the disclosure was on 23 February), the Dutch plenipotentiaries reported as follows:
“The treaty concluded in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles has been read and mutually recognised as incompatible with the new state of affairs, and as not susceptible of express maintenance. But our co-plenipotentiaries then for the first time communicated to us their concern that, should the sultans of Acheh be left to themselves, the United States of America, or earlier, will seek to establish themselves with them, and get a footing for a settlement which, in case of war, would be to the great detriment of British navigation. The readiest means of averting this evil appears to be that the Netherlands undertake to stipulate with those of Acheh that they will never admit any establishment of a foreign power.”
The dispatch thus records two things. First, the Dutch plenipotentiaries’ recognition that the 1819 convention could not be expressly maintained under the new treaty. Second, the British concern about American designs on Acheh — a concern that, as Van der Kemp notes, “might indeed be called no idle talk” given the warning that J. C. Baud had addressed to Falck in his letter of 28 November 1822 about North-American designs on the Philippines. The British suggestion — that the Netherlands stipulate with the Achehnese that they would never admit any foreign establishment — would form the basis of the Dutch declaration of February–March 1824 that was annexed to the treaty of 17 March 1824.
Significance
The dispatch of 21 February 1824 is significant in Van der Kemp’s analysis for two reasons. First, it records the Dutch plenipotentiaries’ explicit recognition that the 1819 convention was incompatible with the new treaty — a recognition that would have warranted the abandonment of the 1819 convention, rather than its mere modification. Second, it shows that the Dutch plenipotentiaries were prepared to entertain the British concern about American designs, and to propose a Dutch guarantee against foreign establishments in Acheh — a guarantee that went well beyond the King’s verbal authorisation of 13 February. The dispatch thus marks the moment at which the Dutch plenipotentiaries began to drift from their instructions, and to accept obligations that the Dutch government had not authorised.
The follow-up dispatch of 24 February 1824 would take the next, more dangerous step: proposing to meet the British wishes, not by inserting further articles in the treaty itself, but by a separate nota or declaration.
See Also
- Hendrik Fagel
- Anton Reinhard Falck
- George Canning
- Charles Watkin Williams Wynn
- Captain Elout
- Elout
- Raising of the Acheh treaty in London negotiations
- Dutch plenipotentiaries’ dispatch of 24 February 1824
- King’s authorization of 13 February 1824
- First draft of 1824 Anglo-Dutch treaty
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824)
- Treaty of Pedir (1819)
- Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
- J. C. Baud
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.