Goossens

Properties2
tagsperson, dutch, colonial, civil-administrator, aceh-war, 19th-century, 1889, snouck-hurgronje, groot-atjeh
aliasesGoossens, Assistent-Resident Goossens, Goossens (Groot-Atjeh official), Goossens van Groot-Atjeh

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Goossens — Assistent-Resident in the Dutch colonial civil administration — was the Dutch official who, as assistent-resident of Groot-Atjèh in March 1889, persuaded the governor Van Teijn to refuse permission to Dr. Snouck Hurgronje to visit Atjèh incognito, on the ground that the visit would awaken distrust and jeopardise the pending submission of the Keumala-party. The refusal, frustrated Snouck Hurgronje’s Atjèh plan for two years, until his eventual residence at Atjèh from July 1891 to February 1892 under the next governor Pompe van Meerdervoort.

The March 1889 Refusal

When Snouck Hurgronje, having arrived at Pinang on his way to visit Atjèh incognito — either as Abd al-Gaffār or as unofficial European, avoiding the Dutch administrative posts on Atjèh’s North Coast — was met by the Dutch consul Kruijt with a Buitenzorg message of 9 April 9 April 1889 that he must give up his plan and travel directly to Batavia, the immediate cause was the advice of the assistent-resident Goossens of Groot-Atjèh. The governor Van Teijn had laid the matter before Goossens, and that official thought it better to fend off Snouck Hurgronje’s visit.

Goossens had objections, and it was not difficult for him to persuade the governor that the political situation did not allow the execution of the travel plan. The journey would awaken distrust. Abd al-Gaffār’s origin the Atjèhers would surely discover, and his attempt would be connected with the Dutch striving for contact with the pretendent-sultan and the heads of the war party; the pending submission of the Keumala-party, the probability of coming success, would be put in the balance — and that must not be! The governor said so on 25 March 25 March 1889 to Buitenzorg, whereupon a missive of the gouvernements secretaris of 9 April 9 April to the heer Snouck Hurgronje at Pinang meant the prohibition to remain there: he had to travel directly to Batavia.

The Succession by Ruyssenaers

Goossens was succeeded as assistent-resident of Groot-Atjèh by Ruyssenaers, who — reading in the files of the botched visit — understood that a blunder had been made. He spoke of it with the general Van Teijn, who now also began to grasp something of the value of a scholarly religious-political Atjèh-reconnaissance as Snouck Hurgronje had meant to make. The understanding would lead, in February 1891, to Van Teijn’s request for Snouck Hurgronje’s “spoedig mogelijk” (as soon as possible) coming to Atjèh — the request that, after some delay, would result in the July 1891–February 1892 residence.

Damsté’s Judgement

Damsté’s judgement of Goossens is double-edged: “Laten we hem loven, dien assistent-resident, die den heer Snouck Hurgronje zoo te zeggen de atjehsche deur voor de neus toegooide” (Let us praise that assistant-resident, who so to speak slammed the Atjèhse door in the nose of the heer Snouck Hurgronje). The scholar would, in the years that followed, render invaluable services to the Netherlands, to Indië, and in particular also to Atjèh — to say nothing of his merits for science in general. But whether that would have gone the same way if he had wandered into the Atjèhse interior in ‘89? And whether he would have come far in that interior? Or whether they would have let him wander far? Open questions! But it would have been: a hazardous, a highly dangerous experiment! Glad that it was not tried.

Significance

Goossens is the Dutch official whose March 1889 refusal to permit Snouck Hurgronje’s incognito visit to Atjèh frustrated the scholar’s Atjèh plan for two years. The refusal — based on the assistent-resident’s fear that the visit would awaken distrust and jeopardise the pending submission of the Keumala-party — was, in Damsté’s retrospective judgement, perhaps as well; the wandering of the scholar through the Atjèh interior would have been a hazardous and highly dangerous experiment. The eventual residence of Snouck Hurgronje at Atjèh from July 1891 to February 1892 — under the next governor Pompe van Meerdervoort and the next assistent-resident Ruyssenaers — would produce the Verslag of 23 May 23 May 1892 that is the foundational document of the modern Dutch understanding of the Atjèh-oorlog.

See Also

Source

Drie Atjeh-mannen: Snouck Hurgronje — Van Heutsz — Van Daalen, door H. T. Damsté (September 1936). OCR-filename: 20260718_105749_DLP-111-Drie_Atjeh_mannen_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 13–15.

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