C. A. Snell — Ridder van de Militaire Willemsorde — was one of W. Muurling’s two well-known Atjeh lieutenants in the Gajò Loeös, and the officer who on 5 August 1914 destroyed the united bands of Nja’ Ali and Nja’ Asém at Koeala Daja in the sub-division Tjalang. He was later pensioned as a colonel.
The Gajò Loeös
Snell served with Van Eck under captain Muurling when the 1st Division of marechaussée was sent to the Gajò Loeös after setbacks of the infantry garrison, and “soon restored order.” In May 1911, while Muurling accompanied the Kedjoerön Petiambang and fourteen chiefs to the fair exhibition at Koeta Radja, Snell temporarily conducted the administration — “and he, while acting, brought in eight more men from the resistance and four muzzle-loaders.”
Koeala Daja, 5 August 1914
During the resistance in Daja and Lhong, the relentless pursuit in the plain of Lhong drove the band of Nja’ Asém either into the caves of the limestone hills or into the landschap Daja, where another marechaussée column was pursuing the band of Nja’ Ali. Nja’ Asém fled to Daja and joined Nja’ Ali’s band.
“It proved a short-lived joy, for already on 5 August the marechaussee commander in Daja, Lieutenant Snell, after a neatly prepared action, surprised the bands assembled at the holy grave near the mouth of the Daja river; fifteen band members fell, among them both band leaders Nja’ Ali and Nja’ Asém, while the repeating carbines lost by the Daja column and the overseer’s Mauser rifle were recaptured.”
That blow broke the last resistance: on 9 August five more men of the Lhong band reported themselves and on 18 August the remaining nine came to offer their submission, handing in the missing double-barrelled sporting gun.
Account from the Maréchaussée Jubileum-nummer (1930) — “Old Hand”
the 1930 jubilee number of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië carried a long interview with Snell under the title Een boom met “Old Hand”, conducted shortly before the corps’s fortieth anniversary. It gives his initials as L. A. Snell and describes him as an officer of sixteen years’ service in Atjeh, most of it with the Korps Maréchaussée, in which he had served in every rank.
Decorations and promotion
He is described as ridder of the Militaire Willems-Orde, twice Eervol Vermeld, and bearer of the Eereteeken voor Belangrijke Krijgsbedrijven for Atjeh 1906–1910, Atjeh 1911–1914, Westkust Atjeh 1925–1927 and Nieuw-Guinea 1907–1915. The knight’s cross was presented to him at Bandoeng in April 1927. He was promoted major on 2 May 1926, lieutenant-colonel on 21 December 1926, and by 1929 was colonel commanding the 2nd Regiment of Infantry at Bandoeng, with Captain L. N. W. Vogelesang as his adjutant.
The Westkust command
When in 1925 “het op de Westkust van Atjeh opnieuw begon te spoken” and it was decided to send experienced rimboe-officers from Java, attention fell at once on Captain Snell, “een old hand” as the press called him — a nickname he kept in the army. Greeted with joy by his old comrades, he “maakte met zijn steeds van een glimlach vergezeld gaande bevelen een eind aan het verzet.” It was during that action that Captain J. Paris fell in the engagement in which command passed to Kromo-di-Koro and then Suwoek.
On patrol work and post life
Snell described the tempo-doeloe of his entry into the Atjehsche Garde as a second lieutenant, learning “het vak” on wanderings with a handful of maréchaussées; the following of the enemy’s trail to surprise him in his hiding place; and the bivouacs in downpours on the mountains, where no tents could be pitched, the wounded carried in tandoe, the men waiting for dawn plagued by hunger and cold, a rock or a branch for a resting place, “soms werd de nacht ook wel eens doorgebracht, hangende aan een wortel.” All misery was borne with resignation and no complaint was ever heard.
Of post life he said it was full of variety and emotion: the Queen’s birthday, Christmas, New Year, the Inlandsch Nieuwjaar and weddings celebrated with the revellers in “een blauwe atilla met witte pantalon,” the bivouac band in front, coming to invite the officers. “Er heerschte een toon van saâmbindende kameraadschap, zonder dat één oogenblik de discipline werd verstoord; wij begrepen elkander volkomen.”
The men he named
Asked about the old vuurvreters, Snell said he saw pass before him “den zoo beminden Scheepens, den levenslustigen Veltman, den altoos vroolijken Darlang, den onverzettelijken Christoffel, de stoere Geertsema, Beckering, Watrin, Schmidt en zoovele anderen” — men carefree in the soos but of rare energy in the rimboe, “gepaard aan bovenmenschelijk doorzettingsvermogen en waardeering van zijn tegenstander. Ik heb Atjeh en zijn bewoners lief gekregen!”
He named as the great pioneers Graafland, “den vader der Maréchaussées,” with Van Daalen, Colijn, Swart, Van der Maaten and above all Van Heutsz; then insisted that “de eenvoudigen van ziel” be rescued from oblivion too, listing Marks, Frank, Mosselman, Heynen, Emond, Rugebregt, Salawono, Kasir, Wowor, Nussy and Kromo-di-Koro as “de dappersten onder de dapperen.”
On the meaning of the corps and on the Atjehnese
Snell pointed to the corps’s work of peace — the roads traversing Atjeh, the engineering works, the order created “in de vroeger door onderlinge veeten van elkander gescheiden staatjes.” His closing reflections were sombre: hatred still reigned in the hearts of the former enemies, and could it be otherwise among a people with as much onafhankelijkheidszin as no other in the Archipelago? Despite decades of struggle its mentality had not changed: “Het is onderworpen, doch niet verzoend.” “Wij hebben het Atjehsche Volk leed, zeer veel leed berokkend. Onze plicht is het dat weer goed te maken” — hatred must give way to appreciation and friendship, but that was a process running over generations, and the task fell to the younger men, demanding self-control, tact, and the execution of orders “zonder onnoodig bloedvergieten.” “De Atjeher heeft zijn onafhankelijkheid met groote dapperheid verdedigd… een dapper vijand verdient de hulde.”
The vaandel
Snell called the coming presentation of the colour the fulfilment of a long-cherished wish, and travelled to Atjeh for the sixth time to attend — “gelukkig niet om de gepantserde vuist te hanteeren.” The interviewer overheard him telephone an old comrade about the voyage: “Zorg er voor, dat er aan boord van de Tasman een voldoende voorraad ijskoud bier aanwezig is, want een goed Maréchaussée heeft een gezonden dorst!”
See Also
- Resistance in Daja and Lhong (1914)
- Nja’ Ali
- Nja’ Asém
- W. Muurling
- Daja
- Tjalang
- Gajò Loeös
- Corps of Military Constabulary of Atjeh and Dependencies
- Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh (Jubileum-nummer 1930)
- Uitreiking van het vaandel aan het Korps Maréchaussée (2 April 1930)
- Gevecht waarin kapitein Paris sneuvelde (Westkust van Atjeh, 1925-1927)
- Jhr. Graafland
- Kerkhof Peutjoet
- Tasman (ship)
Source
Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter XI, pp. 114–115; Chapter XII, p. 126; Chapter XV, p. 145 and illustration p. 197.
Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh: De Atjehsche Garde, 1890 - 2 April 1930 (“The Corps of Maréchaussée in Atjeh: The Atjehnese Guard”), 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.