De Java Bode was a newspaper in the Dutch East Indies that became one of the important press voices in the early public debate on the Aceh War. It is especially important for Aceh-related history because its editor H. B. van Daalen used the paper in 1873 to publish the two articles later reprinted as De enquête over den mislukten tocht naar Atjeh.
The paper also appeared in later Dutch parliamentary debate, where it was cited as a source on the cost of the war and on suspicions that economic interests were linked to Dutch military policy.
The paper and the first Aceh inquiry
In 1873, numbers 131 and 132 of the Java-Bode carried the articles by H. B. van Daalen that were later printed together as De enquête over den mislukten tocht naar Atjeh. In those articles, Van Daalen attacked the handling of the First Aceh Expedition (1873), criticized the later Commission of Inquiry into the First Aceh Expedition, and accused the government and its supporters of trying to protect Governor-General Loudon.
Because of this, De Java Bode became more than a newspaper of record. It became an active participant in the first great printed controversy of the war.
A paper in later debate
The newspaper reappeared in the Tweede Kamer debate of 1897. There it was cited for estimates of the huge cost of the war and for a report that seemed to suggest advance knowledge of a coming aggressive policy in Aceh. In this way the paper’s name remained linked to questions of war, money, and political honesty.
Significance
De Java Bode is significant because it was one of the colonial newspapers through which the Dutch public first argued about responsibility for the war in Atjeh. Its connection with H. B. van Daalen and De enquête over den mislukten tocht naar Atjeh gives it a clear place in the documentary history of the conflict.
See Also
- H. B. van Daalen
- De enquête over den mislukten tocht naar Atjeh
- Bemoediging
- James Loudon
- Commission of Inquiry into the First Aceh Expedition
- Atjeh debate in the Tweede Kamer (16-17 November 1897)
- 1897
- 1873
Source
De enquête over den mislukten tocht naar Atjeh, door H. B. van Daalen, redacteur van den Java-Bode (Batavia / The Hague, 1873), title page and pp. 3–23.
Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer: Debatten bij de behandeling der begrooting van Nederlandsch-Indië voor 1898 (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897), pp. 10, 37, 69.