The Korps Maréchaussée te voet in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (“Corps of Maréchaussée on foot in Atjeh and Dependencies”) — known in the jubilee literature as De Atjehsche Garde, the Atjehnese Guard — was the elite dismounted constabulary and light-infantry corps of the Netherlands-Indies army established by Gouvernementsbesluit of April 1890 and celebrated at its fortieth anniversary on 2 April 1930 with the grant of a vaandel (colour) by Queen Wilhelmina. This article records the account of the corps given in the 1930 jubilee number of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië, Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh.
Foundation and original purpose
The corps was instituted by Gouvernementsbesluit of April 1890, under the further approval of the King, with the intention of exercising police work within the geconcentreerde stelling (concentrated position) of Groot-Atjeh, and was originally destined to hand that task over to the civil administration as soon as conditions should permit. The immediate provocation was the state of affairs after the concentratie decision of 19 August 1884: Dutch troops had been thrown back into a defensive attitude, “kleine benden slopen de linie binnen, vielen onze convooien aan en vernielden kunstwerken” — small bands crept inside the line, attacked the convoys and destroyed engineering works. Overvallen (surprise attacks) occurred “met schier verbijsterende regelmaat” — with almost bewildering regularity. To end them, the carrying of weapons by the Atjehnese population was made a punishable offence and a passenstelsel (pass system) introduced; but the evil was not thereby overcome, and a separate corps was raised.
The jubilee editorial observed that the corps had grown far beyond that original design, its indispensable existence now fixed in the right to carry a colour.
Recruitment and the mark of distinction
The corps had to be recruited from officers, non-commissioned officers and “de beste niet-Europeesche manschappen van het Leger” — the best non-European rank and file of the army. Placement with the Maréchaussée “is een onderscheiding geweest en is dat gebleven” — had been and remained a distinction. A European soldier had first to earn the rank of non-commissioned officer, and even then his admission to the ranks of the Guard depended on his military record.
Mosselman recorded that entry was entirely voluntary: every supplementary requisition on the infantry corps carried the words “geschikt en… genegen” — fit and willing. In that word genegen, he wrote, lay not only the freedom to join or not — since the regular soldier had otherwise only to go where he was sent — but also the recognition by the command that more would be asked of a maréchaussée than could be expected of the mass, and that the greatest exertion and the greatest sacrifices might be demanded at any moment. Whoever could not or would not give that “deed beter weg te blijven” — did better to stay away.
The first establishment
Only one divisie was at first designated. It consisted of a captain-commandant, one first lieutenant, a European sergeant-major, a European fourier (quartermaster-sergeant), twelve European sergeants, twelve non-European sergeants, twelve non-European corporals, and 180 non-European maréchaussées. Of these it was required that they should make themselves acquainted with the language and the adat (customary law) of the country, in order to win confidence and obtain reliable intelligence — so far as that was possible in a region where the population that had submitted was in league with the enemy.
From police work to field operations
From 1890 to 1896 the corps worked within the concentrated line, performing police duties and also administrative work: it laid out registers of the kind kept by the B.B., recording possessions and trades carried on, so that the administration might extend its paternal care over the population. From 1896 the maréchaussées also entered the purely military field and sought out the enemy in his hiding places. The jubilee number credited this decisive extension to the then captain of Maréchaussée, Jhr. G. J. W. C. Graafland, who “had het initiatief daartoe genomen en voerde het met ontembare energie uit” — had taken the initiative and carried it out with untameable energy; his name accordingly stood at the head of the list of knighted maréchaussées.
The defection of Teukoe Djohan, alias Oemar in 1896 compelled the government of Atjeh to abandon the system of concentratie adopted in 1884: the Dutch now faced the man whom they had themselves supplied with weapons and ammunition, and who forced them to resume the war they had broken off in 1884.
Duties
An extensive task was assigned to the corps. Its sphere of work “strekte zich uit over alles, dat de orde en rust zou kunnen verstoren” — extended over everything that might disturb order and peace — and included the prevention of smuggling in foodstuffs and pepper, which had arisen because the coasts of enemy territory were closed by warships. It took part in all military operations of any importance and waged a guerrilla against the Atjehnese, who sought to maintain the war against the Dutch in the same manner.
The maréchaussées received the most dangerous and difficult assignments: “het afbijten van de spits” (biting off the point, that is taking the lead), the carrying out of omtrekkingen (turning movements), nocturnal surprise attacks and the like. The field battalions found in the corps a particular support that could not be valued highly enough.
Growth of the establishment
The corps found ever more recognition and was repeatedly enlarged, until by Gouvernementsbesluit of 3 March 1899 its strength was brought to 20 officers and 1,212 men, divided over five divisies of three afdeelingen, subdivided into four brigades each. Each division stood under the orders of a captain-division commander; so far as military administration was concerned, the corps was placed under the command of a field officer, for which post the plaatselijk commandant at Koeta Radja was soon designated.
An annual sum was placed at the disposal of the Civil and Military Governor of Atjeh and Dependencies with which to reward maréchaussées who had excelled, in order to foster initiative. Officers attached to the corps were carried à la suite of their own arm, and the commanders of divisions and afdeelingen, where circumstances required it, were charged with the administration as civiel-gezaghebber (civil authority).
Stations
In 1898 the corps was localised as follows: Staff at Koeta Radja; 1st Division at Selimoen; 2nd Division at Indrapoeri; 3rd Division at Tjot Mantjang and Glé Broet; 4th Division at Tjot Goet; and 5th Division at Lam Baroe and Lho’-Nga.
In 1910 the following stations were assigned: 1st Division at Blang Kedjeren; 2nd Division at Meulaboh; 3rd Division at Takèngan; 4th Division at Lam Meulo; and 5th Division at Lho Soekon, where it was still quartered in 1930.
Pay, exemptions and uniform
Members of the corps were paid extra. Captains received the same salary as their equals in rank on the General Staff, lieutenants as their equals in the arm of the Engineers, and onderluitenants the same pay as second lieutenants in that arm, while a separate scale of pay was created for the non-commissioned officers and men.
Exempt from garrison duties, the maréchaussées ran their own menage (mess). In dress they were distinguished from other soldiers by a facing consisting of a trimming on both corners of the collar — the so-called bloedvingers (“blood-fingers”) — and a flat curl on the sleeves, of gold for the officers and of orange cloth for the lower ranks.
Armament
They were armed with a karabijn — at first the Beaumont, later the Mannlicher — and with the klewang, the specific weapon of the Atjehnese, with which the Atjehnese was now himself fought.
Corps spirit
The chief factor in the corps’s success was, in the editorial’s judgement, “de uitstekende korpsgeest” — the outstanding corps spirit which distinguished the Maréchaussée from the other arms. Continual companionship during the most perilous moments had created a fraternisation, which the officers cultivated and promoted in their leadership. The corps’s own motto, recorded by Mosselman, was “Eén voor allen, allen voor één” — one for all, all for one — and only two words were allowed to have value: Doel (objective) and Bereiken (to reach it). Onmogelijk — impossible — did not exist: “je deed, of bezweek bij de poging” — you did it, or you perished in the attempt.
Later history
In 1914 the Maréchaussée became a part of the arm of the Infantry, and to that circumstance the jubilee editorial attributed the fact that its banner would correspond to that of “de Koningin van het Slagveld” — the Queen of the Battlefield. There followed a period of unbroken pursuit of the remaining resistance fighters who had chosen hiding places in the wastelands, and alongside it a consolidating task: what had been won had to be retained at any price.
The quiet that set in after 1914 led the government to reduce the corps in 1925 to 18 officers and 1,072 men — a reduction in which, the editorial remarked, the policy of versobering (austerity) must undoubtedly have had a hearty word to say. After the Westkust action had again demonstrated its indispensability, the corps was towards the end of 1927 once more raised to 23 officers and 1,214 men, and a new division was formed with Bakongan as its station.
Casualties
In the period 1890–1930, the jubilee number recorded, approximately 950 members of the corps fell on the field of battle and about 250 were wounded.
Significance
The jubilee number claimed for the corps a significance exceeding its purely military value. By continual patrolling it had, in the editors’ words, kept the djahats (evil-doers) back from intended misdeeds; and precisely because so little was known of that part of its work — “de massa spitst zich op wapenfeiten” (the crowd fastens on feats of arms) — the fulfilment of it had given the corps its inner meaning for the pacification. Colonel L. A. Snell pointed in the same issue to the corps’s work of peace: the numerous roads that traversed Atjeh and the many engineering works it had constructed, and the order and quiet created in “de vroeger door onderlinge veeten van elkander gescheiden staatjes” — the little states formerly divided from one another by mutual feuds.
See Also
- Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh (Jubileum-nummer 1930)
- Uitreiking van het vaandel aan het Korps Maréchaussée (2 April 1930)
- G. J. W. C. Graafland
- L. A. Snell
- Brigade (Maréchaussée)
- Divisie (Maréchaussée)
- Overzicht van Onderscheidingen toegekend aan het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (1890-1930)
- Kerkhof Peutjoet
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
Source
Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh: De Atjehsche Garde, 1890 - 2 April 1930, Extra Jubileum-nummer of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië issued for the fortieth anniversary of the corps (1930), pp. 1-16. Offprint DLP-143, Bibliotheek KITLV, accession 621 116 794.