The Adviseur voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (“Adviseur for the Administrative Affairs of the Outer Possessions”) was a Dutch colonial office established in 1908 within the Department of the Interior to oversee the post-pacification administration of the Outer Possessions of the Netherlands East Indies. The inaugural holder of the office was Hendrikus Colijn, who would later become Dutch Minister of War and a member of the Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal. The Adviseur was simultaneously the Chef (head) of the Afdeeling voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen — the bureau attached to the Department of the Interior for the oversight of the outer possessions — and was gradually supplied with two Adjunct-Adviseurs.
Account from De Buitenbezittingen (1917) — Adviseur voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen
The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account of the Adviseur voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen appears in the chapter on administrative organisation. The office was created in 1908 in response to the recognition that “the central Government at Buitenzorg and Batavia could no longer adequately oversee the task it had to fulfil with respect to those possessions, both because of its scope and from unfamiliarity with the prevailing conditions and the needs that, in the interest of the regions recently brought under our administrative influence, demanded fulfilment.” The Bureau “went, in consequence, to feel the need for an institute whose officials, by local investigation and local discussions, could fill that gap.”
The Adviseur’s task was twofold: “on the one hand, [the Adviseur and his officials] would be able to provide guidance to the central Government organs regarding what ought to be done in the said regions from the side of the Government; on the other hand, [guidance] to the local Government organs regarding the direction and the views that the central Government wished to see them follow in the exercise of administration.”
The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s volume was produced under the supervision of the Adviseur and his Bureau — the Encyclopaedisch Bureau, as the volume’s author, was “further attached to the said bureau since [its establishment].” The Adviseur’s office is thus the institutional author of the principal published Dutch record of the post-pacification order in Atjeh and the wider Buitenbezittingen.
Significance
The Adviseur voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen is, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account, the principal administrative innovation of the post-1896 consolidation of Dutch rule in Atjeh and the wider Buitenbezittingen. The creation of the office in 1908 marks the formal recognition that the pacification of Atjeh had outgrown its original military-administrative framework and required a permanent institutional intermediary between Batavia and the field. The inaugural holder of the office, Hendrikus Colijn, is one of the three frontispiece figures of the volume De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914 — together with Governor-General Idenburg and former Governor-General Van Heutsz — the three men “whose names are so closely bound up with the preparation and execution of the measures that have led to the enormous progress of the Buitenbezittingen in the said period.”
See Also
- Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen
- Encyclopaedisch Bureau
- H. Colijn
- A. W. F. Idenburg
- J. B. van Heutsz
- Departement van Binnenlandsch Bestuur
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Buitenbezittingen
- Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Aceh War
- 1908
- 1914
Sources
De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914, Deel I, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen, Aflevering X (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 3–4 (Bestuurs-organisatie), Voorwoord and frontispiece portraits.
The Adviseur voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (“Adviseur for the Administrative Affairs of the Outer Possessions”) was a Dutch colonial office established in 1908 within the Department of the Interior to oversee the post-pacification administration of the Outer Possessions of the Netherlands East Indies. The inaugural holder of the office was Hendrikus Colijn, who would later become Dutch Minister of War and a member of the Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal. The Adviseur was simultaneously the Chef (head) of the Afdeeling voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen — the bureau attached to the Department of the Interior for the oversight of the outer possessions — and was gradually supplied with two Adjunct-Adviseurs.
Account from De Buitenbezittingen (1917) — Adviseur voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen
The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account of the Adviseur voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen appears in the chapter on administrative organisation. The office was created in 1908 in response to the recognition that “the central Government at Buitenzorg and Batavia could no longer adequately oversee the task it had to fulfil with respect to those possessions, both because of its scope and from unfamiliarity with the prevailing conditions and the needs that, in the interest of the regions recently brought under our administrative influence, demanded fulfilment.” The Bureau “went, in consequence, to feel the need for an institute whose officials, by local investigation and local discussions, could fill that gap.”
The Adviseur’s task was twofold: “on the one hand, [the Adviseur and his officials] would be able to provide guidance to the central Government organs regarding what ought to be done in the said regions from the side of the Government; on the other hand, [guidance] to the local Government organs regarding the direction and the views that the central Government wished to see them follow in the exercise of administration.”
The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s volume was produced under the supervision of the Adviseur and his Bureau — the Encyclopaedisch Bureau, as the volume’s author, was “further attached to the said bureau since [its establishment].” The Adviseur’s office is thus the institutional author of the principal published Dutch record of the post-pacification order in Atjeh and the wider Buitenbezittingen.
Significance
The Adviseur voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen is, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account, the principal administrative innovation of the post-1896 consolidation of Dutch rule in Atjeh and the wider Buitenbezittingen. The creation of the office in 1908 marks the formal recognition that the pacification of Atjeh had outgrown its original military-administrative framework and required a permanent institutional intermediary between Batavia and the field. The inaugural holder of the office, Hendrikus Colijn, is one of the three frontispiece figures of the volume De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914 — together with Governor-General Idenburg and former Governor-General Van Heutsz — the three men “whose names are so closely bound up with the preparation and execution of the measures that have led to the enormous progress of the Buitenbezittingen in the said period.”
See Also
- Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen
- Encyclopaedisch Bureau
- H. Colijn
- A. W. F. Idenburg
- J. B. van Heutsz
- Departement van Binnenlandsch Bestuur
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Buitenbezittingen
- Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Aceh War
- 1908
- 1914
Sources
De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914, Deel I, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen, Aflevering X (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 3–4 (Bestuurs-organisatie), Voorwoord and frontispiece portraits.