IJzerman — Ingenieur J. W. IJzerman — was a Dutch colonial engineer, formerly chief of the Oembilin coal-mining undertaking in west Sumatra, who visited Atjèh in the period of the Pahlawan-klucht under Deijkerhoff and was — in the famous Priok encounter of the last days of March 1896 — the principal Dutch defender of the Deijkerhoff-Oema policy against the warnings of Snouck Hurgronje, only to learn from Snouck Hurgronje’s reply that the policy had just collapsed in the defection of Teuku Umar of 29 March 29 March 1896.
The Free Travel
As chief of the Oembilin coal-mining undertaking, IJzerman had free travel; and so he also travelled to Atjèh. The culinary table of governor Deijkerhoff he found to be praised, and also his political table was favourably judged; and of his good findings he testified at Buitenzorg, where the governor-general Van der Wijck gladly heard what impressions men in whom he had trust brought back from their journeys. Snouck Hurgronje had had some success with his warnings — “bij den vice-president van den Raad van Indie Jhr. C. H. van der Wijck, die later als commissaris van de Koninklijke Pakketvaart Maatschappij Atjèh bezocht en toen in zijn van Snouck ontvangen geloof gesterkt werd” (with the vice-president of the Raad van Indië, Jhr. C. H. van der Wijck, who later, as commissioner of the Royal Packet-boat Company, visited Atjèh and then was strengthened in the belief received from Snouck). But when Van der Wijck returned from the Netherlands to Indië as governor-general, he had to declare himself “vleugellam” (wing-lame) with respect to Atjèh: Deijkerhoff and his people had succeeded in making the minister of colonies Baron Van Dedem so afraid of some change in Atjèh-policy that even the Queen-Regent was called upon, to make Van der Wijck promise that he would change nothing therein!
The Priok Encounter (Last Days of March 1896)
On a day that Snouck Hurgronje left the palace of the governor-general in solemn black clothing, he met IJzerman, who was going to report to the landvoogd the favourable impressions he had just obtained on an Atjèh-journey. IJzerman was in white and made a joke about the colour difference, which could also apply to their different view on the policy applied in Atjèh. He was now going to hold a different pair of glasses before the landvoogd than those through which Snouck Hurgronje had let him look!
On one of the last days of March 1896 the two gentlemen met again, now at Priok: IJzerman was just back from an Atjèh-journey to Java, and Snouck Hurgronje was seeing someone off who was leaving Java. “Dat gaat dan maar goed op Atjèh!” (Things are going well on Atjèh then!) cried IJzerman to his opponent. “Ja” (Yes), was the answer, “Oema is zoo juist weggeloopen met medeneming van een vracht geweren, munitie en rijksdaalders” (Oema has just run off, taking with him a load of rifles, ammunition, and rix-dollars). “Onmogelijk!” (Impossible!). “Nu, het is Deijkerhoff zelf die die onmogelijkheid heeft getelegrafeerd!” (Well, it is Deijkerhoff himself who has telegraphed that impossibility!).
Significance
IJzerman is the Dutch colonial engineer whose Priok encounter with Snouck Hurgronje in the last days of March 1896 is one of the dramatic episodes of the defection of Teuku Umar. His Atjèh-journey in the period of the Pahlawan-klucht — and his favourable report of Deijkerhoff’s policy to the governor-general Van der Wijck at Buitenzorg — was one of the principal Dutch supports of the Deijkerhoff-Oema policy in the period before its collapse; and his Priok encounter with Snouck Hurgronje — in which he learned, from Snouck Hurgronje’s reply, that the policy had just collapsed — is the dramatic record of the moment of the collapse.
Sources
A List of the Best Books Relating to Dutch East India, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague (1902).
See Also
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- Deijkerhoff
- Teuku Umar
- Defection of Teuku Umar (March 1896)
- Pahlawan-klucht
- Van der Wijck
- Van Dedem
- Koninklijke Pakketvaart Maatschappij
- Raad van Indië
- Oembilin
- Buitenzorg
- Priok
- Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Aceh War
- Atjeh-oorlog
- 29 March
- March 1896
- 1896
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. 27–28.