Van Heutsz’s speech at the Bond van Vrije Liberalen on 13 January 1917 was a public address by former Governor-General J. B. van Heutsz in Amsterdam in which he called for immediate action on the defence of Netherlands Indies and implicitly endorsed his own appointment as buitengewoon Regeerings-Commissaris with unlimited powers to reform the colonial defence system, directly provoking Van der Maaten to write a critical pamphlet exposing the speech’s underlying agenda.
The Meeting
The meeting took place at the gathering of the Bond van Vrije Liberalen in Amsterdam on 13 January 1917. It was reported in De Nieuwe Courant and De Telegraaf of 13 January and 14 January 1917. The meeting addressed the defence of Netherlands Indies and featured multiple speakers, including C. C. Vattier Kraane, who spoke on economic development in connection with defence.
Van Heutsz’s Advocacy for His Son-in-Law’s Proposals
Van Heutsz spoke in support of the defence proposals of his son-in-law, Lieutenant-Colonel J. Van der Weyden, as set out in the brochure Weerplicht voor Inlanders en samenstelling van de weermacht in Nederlandsch-Indië. Van Heutsz described the 1913 Staatscommissie voor de Verdediging van Nederlandsch-Indië report as “teleurstellend” and claimed that “sedert weer 3½ jaar verloopen zijn en Nederlandsch-Indië weerloozer is dan ooit te midden van den geweldigen oorlog, die om ons heen woedt.”
The Call for a Regeerings-Commissaris
Heer Knobel proposed Van Heutsz as the man “bij uitnemendheid” to be appointed buitengewoon Regeerings-Commissaris with unlimited powers to reform the defence system. This proposal was received with “levendig applaus en langdurige toejuichingen” (lively applause and prolonged cheers). Van Heutsz did not explicitly name himself, but his concluding remarks pointed unmistakably to his own candidacy:
“Het is wenschelijk dat met de ten uitvoerlegging van dat plan met groote volmacht worde belast één man met nuchter verstand, helder oordeel, groot initiatief en veel durf en in wiens zaakkennis algemeen vertrouwen wordt gesteld.”
Van Heutsz’s Rhetoric on Defence Urgency
Van Heutsz called for immediate and decisive action, declaring:
“Indië’s weerloosheid knaagt aan ons koloniaal bezit; zij moet eindigen. Laten wij eindelijk aan de beschaafde wereld toonen dat wij daartoe in staat zijn.”
He stated that every government that fails to prepare for the defence of its country “zwaar zondigt tegenover haar volk” (sins heavily against its people).
Misrepresentation of the Defence Demonstrations
Van der Maaten accused Van Heutsz of misrepresenting the defence demonstrations of 31 August 1916 as involving “duizenden en nog eens duizenden Indiërs” (thousands upon thousands of Indians), when in reality most of the participants were “nontonners” who barely understood the issue. This misrepresentation was cited by Van der Maaten as evidence of Van Heutsz’s tendency to exaggerate in order to advance his political agenda.
Consequences
The speech directly provoked Van der Maaten, who had served under Van Heutsz in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, to write his critical pamphlet dated 25 February 1917. Van der Maaten used the speech as evidence that Van Heutsz was engaged in a campaign of self-promotion aimed at securing the buitengewoon Regeerings-Commissaris appointment, and that the defence proposals being promoted were in fact co-authored by Van Heutsz himself through the Van der Weyden brochure.
Significance
The speech was a pivotal moment in the Dutch colonial defence debate during the First World War. It brought the question of Netherlands Indies defence into mainstream Dutch party politics and exposed the tensions between the Staatscommissie voor de Verdediging van Nederlandsch-Indië’s recommendations and the alternative vision promoted by Van Heutsz and his circle. Van der Maaten’s response pamphlet would in turn reveal the degree to which Van Heutsz had secretly shaped the ostensibly independent work of his son-in-law.
See Also
- J. B. van Heutsz
- J. Van der Weyden
- Van der Weyden’s defense brochure
- Van der Maaten’s pamphlet on Van Heutsz and the Defense of Netherlands Indies
- Van der Maaten
- Bond van Vrije Liberalen
- Staatscommissie voor de Verdediging van Nederlandsch-Indië
- Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger
- C. C. Vattier Kraane
- Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Volksvertegenwoordiging
Source
K. van der Maaten, Z. E. De Oud Gouverneur-Generaal J. B. van Heutsz en de Defensie van Nederlandsch-Indië (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1917).