The government decisions of 19 August 1884 were the decisions taken by the Gouverneur-Generaal van Nederlandsch-Indië on 19 August 1884, by which the experiment of the civil government of Atjeh was ended and the military authority restored and concentrated. The decision followed the discharge requested by the civil Gouverneur Laging Tobias and is recorded, with its criticism, by Coblijn in Hoe Atjeh te onderwerpen.
The contents of the decisions
By the decisions of 19 August 1884:
- the civiele bestuur (civil administration) of Atjeh was abolished;
- kolonel Demmeni was named military governor (militair gouverneur) of Atjeh;
- the controleurs (district officers) in Groot-Atjeh were abolished;
- the functions of assistent-resident of the Westkust (Meulaboh) and of controleur of Segli were transferred to the military commanders;
- the posts of Telok Semawé and Samalanga were withdrawn, and the troops geconcentreerd (concentrated).
Under the energetic and able officer Demmeni a more concentrated position was thus taken up — the system that became the concentratie-stelsel of 1884–1896, with its geconcentreerde linie and ceintuurbaan.
Coblijn’s criticism
Coblijn judged that the concentration in itself was not at all indefensible: even he, in his earlier geschrift De Indische Infanterie, had most strongly disapproved of the withdrawal into a more concentrated position in another case, but in Atjeh, given the means, it might serve. His reproach was addressed to the manner: that the position had been given too defensive a character, that the troops in Atjeh had been cut down again, while tons of gold were spent to make the concentrated position as complete as possible — a ceintuurbaan was laid, the necessary railway material and luxurious barracks acquired, the telegraph carried everywhere — that the withdrawn posts had sacrificed the moral hold on the population, and that the thousand-metre cleared strip along the line had achieved precisely the versinning (estrangement) of the population it was designed to prevent.
See Also
- Concentratie-stelsel (1884-1896)
- Geconcentreerde linie
- Ceintuur-trambaan
- Demmenie
- P. F. Laging Tobias
- Civil government period
- Civil versus military government in Atjeh
- Hoe Atjeh te onderwerpen (Coblijn, 1893)
- 1884
Source
Hoe Atjeh te onderwerpen, door W. A. Coblijn, gepensionneerd Kolonel van het Oost-Indisch Leger (‘s-Gravenhage: De Gebroeders van Cleef, 1893), pp. 83–86. OCR-filename: 20260716_140310_DLP-100-Hoe_Atjeh_te_onderwerpen_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.