Admiraal Fabius was a Dutch admiral and member of the States General who, in the secret sessions of April 1874 on the Atjeh war, opposed the annexation of Groot-Atjeh with words that events, in Verstege’s words of 1886, proved nearly prophetic. Fabius declared on that day “als het ware te voorzien” (as it were to foresee) what ten years later, in the Tenom affair, must be the necessary consequence of annexation: he expressed the fear that the annexation would have “de treurigste en ellendigste gevolgen” (the saddest and most miserable consequences), and asked what would happen if English planters were murdered in Atjeh or their possessions burnt by hostile Atjehers — whether an astonishing outcry would not rise and England would not hold the Netherlands responsible; and if the Dutch proved unable to protect or avenge English subjects, whether England would not say: “You cannot do this, and so we shall do it ourselves? Will such not be the consequence of the annexation?” The member van Nispen van Sevenaar confirmed in the same session that the Netherlands was resolved to hold what it had once taken from Atjeh, and that the wish and object was indeed extension of authority.
See Also
- Annexation proclamation of Atjeh (1874)
- Nisero affair (1883–1885)
- C. van Nispen van Sevenaar
- 1874
- Aceh War
Source
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), p. 32. OCR-filename: 20260801_235605_DLP-158-Een_beroep_op_het_Nederlandsche_volk_in_zake_het_Atjeh_vraagstuk_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.