The Commissie tot onderzoek van de mindere welvaart (1902) — the Commission for the Investigation of the Diminished Welfare of the Indigenous Population — was the commission installed by the Ministerie van Koloniën in 1902 in response to misoogst and hongersnood in several parts of Java. Its final report, when it appeared in 1914, filled no fewer than 33 volumes — a monument of ethical-policy documentation that Fock drily noted had “naar het meer dan volmaakte [gestreefd]” — aspired to more than perfection.
The installation
The commission was installed in 1902, when misoogst and hongersnood in several parts of Java had made it impossible to wait for the report. The principal causes of the Indies poverty — population growth and the pressure that the Atjeh-oorlog ([[1873-1904)|Atjeh-oorlog]] was exerting on the colonial budget — were already well known, even if not always openly acknowledged.
The report
The final report of the commission, when it appeared in 1914, filled 33 volumes. Fock’s dry verdict was that “naar het meer dan volmaakte was gestreefd” — it had aspired to more than perfection. More modest, but at least as useful, in Fock’s judgement, were the economisch-historische bijdragen that the Ministerie van Koloniën published in 1904 under the editorship of Van Deventer, Fock himself and Kielstra.
The Atjeh connexion
The connexion between the commission and Atjeh is twofold. First, the Atjeh-oorlog ([[1873-1904)|Atjeh-oorlog]] was, in the Vermeulen retrospective, one of the two principal causes of the Indies poverty that the commission was installed to investigate. Second, the commission’s installation in 1902 is, alongside the troonrede of 1901 and the Comptabiliteitswet amendment of 26 June 1903, one of the three foundation acts of the ethical-policy state in which the conquest and pacificatie of Atjeh was conducted.
See Also
- Ministerie van Koloniën
- Ethische Politiek
- Troonrede of 1901
- Indische Comptabiliteitswet amendment (26 June 1903)
- C. Th. van Deventer
- D. Fock
- Kielstra
- Atjeh-oorlog (1873-1904)
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- 1902
- 1904
- 1914
Source
Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis van Nederland van 1849 tot 1901, by Mr W. J. van Welderen baron Rengers, 4th rev. ed., Vol. IV: Oost-Indië 1891-1918 by Dr W. H. Vermeulen (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1955), p. 285.