C. Bosscher was an oud-directeur (former director) of the Binnenlandsch Bestuur, the Netherlands Indies civil service, who spent more than thirty of his best years in the Indies and rose from the lowest rungs of the official hierarchy to one of its highest posts. His words at the Burgerpligt meeting of 26 January 1886 were printed as Bijlage B of Verstege’s pamphlet Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk.
Bosscher’s speech at Burgerpligt
Bosscher declared that he saw the immediate future of the Netherlands Indies with care and sorrow: for thirteen years the Dutch had waged a hopeless war at Atjeh against a native enemy, to whom the already conquered ground had been given back again, and inside the concentrated position the overweening enemy surprised the Dutch soldiers, cut them down with the klewang and took their weapons as booty. Dutch military prestige in the archipelago was cracked, the belief in Dutch invincibility lost. He saw signs of rebellion and resistance at various points of the Indies — on East and Central Sumatra, and in the heart of Java itself, in the Preanger Regentschappen and in Madioen. At the Army demoralisation, desertion and indiscipline ruled; through repeated transfers the men had lost confidence in officers whom they did not sufficiently get to know. The Atjehsche chiefs did all they could from Penang, through their agents or returning hadjis, to weaken the trust in the Dutch administration, and prophesied that the Dutch would soon be driven into the sea. If no end was soon made to the fatal situation at Atjeh, these prophecies would find more and more credence, the native would gain more courage, “en het verzet zal algemeen worden!” (“and the resistance will become general!”). Like Verstege he demanded an inquiry, “maar eene enquête is niet genoeg. Vóór alles krachtige reorganisatie van het leger” (“but an inquiry is not enough. Above all, a powerful reorganisation of the army”) — better training, chiefly in shooting and bayonet fencing, so that the soldiers would no longer shrink from the klewang attack of the Atjehsche champions.
See Also
- J. J. W. E. Verstege
- M. T. H. Perelaer
- Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk (Verstege, 1886)
- Aceh War
- 1886
Source
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. 112-113. OCR-filename: 20260801_235605_DLP-158-Een_beroep_op_het_Nederlandsche_volk_in_zake_het_Atjeh_vraagstuk_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.