F. V. A. de Stuers was a general and former commander of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army who became a prominent critic of military field commanders following the defeat of the First Aceh Expedition in 1873.
Controversy with General Booms
In April 1875, F. V. A. de Stuers published an essay in De Gids titled “Nog iets over Atjeh,” defending the executive policy of the Dutch East Indies Government in Batavia. De Stuers argued that the expeditionary force dispatched in April 1873 possessed sufficient troop strength and time to capture Kraton of Aceh, attributing the withdrawal entirely to a lack of tactical perseverance by General J. H. R. Köhler and General E. C. van Daalen.
His assertions were systematically dismantled by General G. G. Booms in the 1875 monograph General Booms Answer to General de Stuers. Booms proved from official parliamentary records that de Stuers had ignored systemic governmental failures, including the lack of a General Staff of the KNIL and the hazards of the Southwest Monsoon in Aceh Operations.
See Also
- G. G. Booms
- J. H. R. Köhler
- E. C. van Daalen
- General Booms Answer to General de Stuers
- First Aceh Expedition
Source
Over de eerste expeditie tegen Atjeh: Een antwoord aan Generaal de Stuers, G. G. Booms, ‘s-Gravenhage: A. van Hoogstraten & Zoon, 1875, pp. 5-22.