The Government of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (“Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden”; Government of Aceh and Dependencies) was the Netherlands Indian territorial administration of Atjeh from 1873 to the end of the colonial period — headed successively by military and civil commandants (1873–1878), governors “likewise military commandant” (1878–1881), civilian governors (1881–1884), civil-and-military governors (1884–1918) and again a civil governor (from 27 September 1918) — whose fifty years of economic statecraft form the subject of Joh. Langhout’s Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923).
Extent
Only the department Groot-Atjeh and, of the Dependencies, the sub-department Singkel (but not the landscape Troemon) and most of the department- and sub-department capitals belonged to the directly-administered territory; in the Dependencies more than one hundred so-called self-governing landscapes were found, in which, however, “de invloed van den besturenden Europeeschen ambtenaar in alle opzichten overheerschend is” (“the influence of the governing European official is in every respect dominant”) (footnote, p. 25).
Organization and personnel
- 1873–1878: military and civil commandants (Colonel Pel, Major-General Diemont), with the judicial competence for Europeans exercised by the assistant-resident (with the notary’s office and registry of births, deaths and marriages, 1875), the opium- and gambling-farms from 1876, and indirect native taxation (hacil, coffee duty) from 1878.
- 1878: Karel van der Heijden becomes first “Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, tevens militair bevelhebber”; the civil formation at the end of 1878 comprises 1 provincial secretary, 4 assistant-residents (Koeta Radja, Sigli, Idi, Meulaboh) and 8 controllers (at Koeta Radja, Oelèë Lheue, Kroeëng Raba, Samalanga, Idi and Meulaboh) — the so-called “bestuurs-civilisatie”.
- 1881–1884: the civil experiment, with Governors Pruijs van der Hoeven and Laging Tobias; the province is placed under the Court of Justice at Padang (ordinance of 14 March 1881), the armed police corps is instituted, and the open-coast trade measures are taken and (29 May 1883) withdrawn.
- 1884–1918: unified civil-and-military governors: Demmeni (13 September 1884), Van Teijn (end 1886), Pompe van Meerdervoort (23 April 1891), Deykerhoff, Commissioner Vetter (1896), Van Heutsz (1898 — with Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje as adviser, invested by circular with the authority of the former resident), Van der Wyck (11 June 1904), Van Daalen (6 May 1905) and Swart (10 June 1908 — 1918), who reorganized the province into five departments under assistant-residents with many sub-departments.
- 1918–: the definitive separation; A. G. H. van Sluys first civilian governor from 27 September 1918, styled in the book “Gouverneur van Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden” (during his leave, Frijling acted as Government Commissioner until early 1923).
Instruments of state
The Government’s pacification worked through public works (roads, bridges, tramway — see Atjeh Tram; waterworks; lighthouses), through fiscal and commercial instruments (the farms, hacil and other duties, the scheepvaartregeling, licences), through currency and credit (the Javasche Bank agency, the afdeelingsbanken and kampong banks, the landscape and sub-department treasuries), through services (education, public health, agriculture advice, veterinary service), through legal organization (the moesapats and the supervision of native judicature; the Korte verklaring administered to the landscape chiefs), and through contract policy with private enterprise (Sabang harbour, timber and agricultural concessions — 141 agriculture and c. 80 forest concessions by 1918).
See Also
Source
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 25 and passim (organization pp. 34–35, 40–41, 45–47, 77–82, 94–123).