H. D. Levyssohn Norman was a nineteenth-century Dutch colonial administrator and historian of the Netherlands Indies. As general secretary of the Indies Government — appointed by decision of 1 July 1874 — he was, together with Der Kinderen as director of justice, charged with the drafting of the ordonnanties (ordinances) for the execution of the agrarian wet (Agrarian Law) of 9 April 1870, and his journey through Java and Madura in July 1874 to encourage the conversion of communal into individual land ownership led to the conversiequaestie (conversion question) and the fall of Governor-General Loudon. As an author he is remembered for De Britsche Heerschappij over Java en Onderhoorigheden in de Jaren 1811-1816 (“British Rule over Java and its Dependencies in the Years 1811-1816”), one of the standard reference works on the period of British interim administration in the archipelago and a documentary source much cited by later Dutch colonial historians such as Van der Kemp.
The Conversiequaestie
The then directors of inland administration and of justice — Levyssohn Norman and Der Kinderen — who were charged with the drafting of the ordinances for the execution of the agrarian wet, had on 25 April 1872 submitted to the Governor-General an ordonnantie for the regulation of the conversion of communal into individual ownership. The Indies Government, however, held that this ordonnantie, which wished to promote the conversion forcibly, intruded too deeply into the native household, and that only rules should be set to prevent injustice and arbitrariness in the conversion.
By decision of 1 July 1874 the general secretary Levyssohn Norman was charged to conduct a general local investigation on Java and Madura into the working of the agrarian ordinances, and thereby, among other things, to exchange thoughts further on the question, pending with the Government, of the conversion of communal ownership, also in connection with the idea of the resident Van Baak, to give every share-holder freedom to withdraw from the community. Arrived at Samarang, he learned that the assistant-resident of Kendal, on the occasion of his being consulted on the question of the regulation of the conversion pending with the residents, had discussed the matter in the dessa’s (villages) with the population, and had then observed that in many dessa’s all share-holders desired a definitive division of the lands, but did not know that it was free for them to do so. The general secretary saw no reason to wait for a general ordonnantie where unanimity among the share-holders about the division and the manner of division existed, and was of the opinion that, where the administration should help to bring the division about, and should ensure that by the bounding of the plots and by registers and maps the manner of division was properly established, the Government should help. The authorisation that he had received by the decree of the Governor-General of 1 July did not give the general secretary the authority to act in this matter. By telegram he asked the Governor-General for and obtained from him the freedom to act — the Raad of Indië was not consulted in the matter — and now not only in Kendal, according to rules laid down by the regional administration in accordance with the instructions of the general secretary, was the conversion carried out, but also elsewhere in Samarang and in other residencies — initially by telegraphic order and encouragement of the general secretary — investigation was made whether there was a desire for conversion.
The Halt of the Journey, 4 November 1874
The reports received here about those conversions gave the Minister of Colonies, Van Goltstein, occasion to send a telegram on 4 November 1874 whereby the Governor-General was requested to cause the official journey of the general secretary to be stopped. “In writing the viceroy was invited to guard against all pressure for conversion on the part of European officials, and to issue no general ordonnantie, except after consultation with the Opperbestuur (Supreme Government), in the spirit of art. 20 of the Regeeringsreglement (Government Regulation). Such consultation seemed to be desired both because of the great interest involved in the matter, and because it had appeared that in Indië very divergent opinions existed about the proposed regulation.” The Governor-General complied with the instruction given him, but at the same time requested honourable discharge, which was granted him by Royal Decree of 17 December 1874.
The Draft Ordinance of 1 February 1875
Although the official journey of the general secretary had been stopped, he believed he could comply with the instruction given him, and on 1 February 1875 submitted a report to the Government, accompanied by a “draft of a general ordonnantie for the execution of art. 62 of the regulation on the policy of the Government of Netherlands Indies and for further provision in agrarian affairs,” serving to codify the provisions on agrarian affairs occurring in various ordonnanties and at the same time to amend and supplement them on many points. That this draft, of which the fifth title dealt with the conversion of communal into hereditary individual land-ownership, had little chance of approval under the then Government appeared from the sentence of the colonial report of 1875: “In her judgement the codification of the agrarian ordonnanties, although it may have some use, is not a matter of urgent nature, and one should not readily proceed to a new amendment of those ordonnanties.”
The Advice of the Raad, 17 October 1879
The draft of Levyssohn Norman was meanwhile placed in the hands of the directors of inland administration and of justice for advice. This advice was given in 1876, and thereupon the draft, somewhat modified by the general secretary, was placed in the hands of the Raad of Indië, which by advice of 17 October 1879 gave as its opinion that there was no need for codification, and that amendments in the ordonnanties had already been made or were less necessary. With this advice agreed both Governor-General and Opperbestuur.
The Historian of British Rule
Levyssohn Norman’s historical work Britsche Heerschappij (“British Rule”) — cited in full by Van der Kemp as Levyssohn Norman’s „Britsche Heerschappij” — was one of the standard reference works on the period of British interim administration in the archipelago, that is, the years of the 1814 London Convention and the British government of Java under Raffles before the colony was returned to the Netherlands in 1816. Van der Kemp cites Levyssohn Norman in a footnote on page 37 of his article Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819. The footnote concerns the text of the convention of 24 January 1817 between the British and Dutch authorities, by which the two colonial powers sought to settle the outstanding questions left by the restoration of the Dutch possessions after the Napoleonic Wars. Van der Kemp remarks that “one finds this convention on page 170 of Hoek’s Herstel and on page 334 of Levyssohn Norman’s Britsche Heerschappij”, placing the two works side by side as the printed sources in which the text of the convention is to be consulted.
The same note cross-refers to Van der Kemp’s own earlier treatise on the 1814 treaty (in Bijdragen, vol. XLVII, 1897, p. 278), so that Levyssohn Norman functions as part of a documentary apparatus alongside Hoek and Van der Kemp’s own earlier publications. These were precisely the years that produced Raffles’s abortive Acheh agreement and the Raffles-Coombs commission, which Van der Kemp’s article examines in detail. He is mentioned in the same breath as Hoek, Netscher, Jeekel and De Sturler — the network of Dutch colonial historians on whose editorial labours Van der Kemp relied.
See Also
- J. Loudon
- J. W. van Lansberge
- T. H. der Kinderen
- W. van Goltstein
- B. van Baak
- Council of Netherlands India
- Agrarische wet
- Conversiequaestie
- Regeeringsreglement
- Hoek
- Convention of 24 January 1817
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1814)
- P. H. van der Kemp
- Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles
Source
De geschiedenis van Nederland in onsen tijd, by J. A. de Bruyne, Directeur der Hoogere Burgerschool te Zierikzee. Deel IV. 1872-1883. Nieuwe uitgave. Schiedam: J. F. Dupont, 1912, Hoofdstuk I, pp. 48-55.
Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159-239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.