The Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (“Bureau for the Administrative Affairs of the Outer Possessions”) was the Dutch colonial administrative bureau established in 1908 within the Department of the Interior to oversee the post-pacification administration of the Outer Possessions of the Netherlands East Indies, including Atjeh. The Bureau was attached to the office of the Adviseur for the Administrative Affairs of the Outer Possessions — the inaugural holder of which was Hendrikus Colijn — and was also the institutional home of the Encyclopaedisch Bureau that produced the volume De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914.
Account from De Buitenbezittingen (1917) — Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen
The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account of the Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen appears in the chapter on administrative organisation. The Bureau was created in 1908 as the institutional response to the fact 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 was conceived as an institutional intermediary between the central Government and the local Government organs in the outer possessions: “on the one hand, those 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 Bureau was attached to the office of the Adviseur voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen — the inaugural holder of which, Hendrikus Colijn, was “the first Adviseur for the Administrative Affairs of the Buitenbezittingen, [later] Old-Minister of War, Member of the Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal.” The Adviseur was “gradually supplied with two Adjuncts” (een tweetal Adjuncten) — that is, with two Adjunct-Adviseurs. The Encyclopaedisch Bureau was “further attached to the said bureau since [its establishment],” with the task of “publishing all kinds of data concerning the Buitenbezittingen in order to inform the public, and in particular Trade and Industry, of the knowledge that had in the meantime been gathered about the regions that had only recently become accessible, in order to make use of it in the interest of the development of those regions.”
The Bureau’s establishment in 1908 is identified by the Encyclopaedisch Bureau as the institutional recognition that the post-1896 pacification of Atjeh — together with the wider post-1902 extension of Dutch “effective authority” across the Buitenbezittingen — had outgrown the original military-administrative framework and required a permanent institutional intermediary between Batavia and the field.
Significance
The Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen is, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account, the principal institutional innovation of the post-1896 consolidation of Dutch rule in Atjeh and the wider Buitenbezittingen. Its creation in 1908 marks the formal recognition that the pacification of Atjeh had outgrown its original military-administrative framework; its attachment to the Encyclopaedisch Bureau (which produced the present volume) makes it the institutional author of the principal published Dutch record of the post-pacification order.
See Also
- Adviseur voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen
- Encyclopaedisch Bureau
- H. Colijn
- 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.
The Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (“Bureau for the Administrative Affairs of the Outer Possessions”) was the Dutch colonial administrative bureau established in 1908 within the Department of the Interior to oversee the post-pacification administration of the Outer Possessions of the Netherlands East Indies, including Atjeh. The Bureau was attached to the office of the Adviseur for the Administrative Affairs of the Outer Possessions — the inaugural holder of which was Hendrikus Colijn — and was also the institutional home of the Encyclopaedisch Bureau that produced the volume De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914.
Account from De Buitenbezittingen (1917) — Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen
The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account of the Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen appears in the chapter on administrative organisation. The Bureau was created in 1908 as the institutional response to the fact 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 was conceived as an institutional intermediary between the central Government and the local Government organs in the outer possessions: “on the one hand, those 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 Bureau was attached to the office of the Adviseur voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen — the inaugural holder of which, Hendrikus Colijn, was “the first Adviseur for the Administrative Affairs of the Buitenbezittingen, [later] Old-Minister of War, Member of the Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal.” The Adviseur was “gradually supplied with two Adjuncts” (een tweetal Adjuncten) — that is, with two Adjunct-Adviseurs. The Encyclopaedisch Bureau was “further attached to the said bureau since [its establishment],” with the task of “publishing all kinds of data concerning the Buitenbezittingen in order to inform the public, and in particular Trade and Industry, of the knowledge that had in the meantime been gathered about the regions that had only recently become accessible, in order to make use of it in the interest of the development of those regions.”
The Bureau’s establishment in 1908 is identified by the Encyclopaedisch Bureau as the institutional recognition that the post-1896 pacification of Atjeh — together with the wider post-1902 extension of Dutch “effective authority” across the Buitenbezittingen — had outgrown the original military-administrative framework and required a permanent institutional intermediary between Batavia and the field.
Significance
The Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen is, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account, the principal institutional innovation of the post-1896 consolidation of Dutch rule in Atjeh and the wider Buitenbezittingen. Its creation in 1908 marks the formal recognition that the pacification of Atjeh had outgrown its original military-administrative framework; its attachment to the Encyclopaedisch Bureau (which produced the present volume) makes it the institutional author of the principal published Dutch record of the post-pacification order.
See Also
- Adviseur voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen
- Encyclopaedisch Bureau
- H. Colijn
- 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.