J. C. van der Wyck was a Dutch major-general (Jonkheer) who governed Atjeh and Onderhoorigheden from 11 June 1904 to 6 May 1905, between the departure of Governor Johannes van Heutsz and the accession of Colonel G. C. E. van Daalen. During his short administration he had the opportunity — and, in author Joh. Langhout’s words, “made a grateful use of it” — to make the measures recommended by his predecessor in the political field subservient to the furtherance of the province’s economic growth.
Administration
Van der Wyck accepted the government on 11 June 1904, after Van Heutsz had left for Holland at the beginning of May to negotiate about the Governor-Generalship. It fell to him to consolidate the opening of the ocean harbour Sabang and therewith of Atjeh to the direct mail connection with Europe: the mail steamers of the Stoomvaart Maatschappij “Nederland”, which since September 1903 took the route over Sabang and Singapore on the outward and homeward voyages, gave a laudable proof of cooperation by considerably lowering their freight prices from the Netherlands to Sabang, whereupon the post offices at Sabang, Oelèë Lheue and Koeta Radja had to be enlarged and equipped for the full traffic service.
Under Van der Wyck much building went on especially at Koeta Radja: stone houses for the assistant-residents of Groot-Atjeh and of the Dependencies were completed and occupied, and a new, tasteful hotel was finished beside numerous private dwellings. With the support of the Government an abattoir was opened in the capital and a pepper-washing establishment was erected, which the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij administered and whose prepared product it caused to be shipped to Amsterdam. To show how high the trade traffic had risen, Langhout cites the figure of the import of piece-goods at Oelèë Lheue, which in value had been f 162,175 in 1898 and by 1904 had risen to f 4,889,522.
Departure
On 1 October 1904 the government of the Netherlands Indies passed from W. Rooseboom to Lieutenant-General J. B. van Heutsz. On 6 May 1905 Governor Van der Wyck was appointed army commander (legercommandant), and on the same date the government of Atjeh was entrusted to Colonel G. C. E. van Daalen.
See Also
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
Replaced Van Heutsz as Governor on 6 September 1904. Soon succeeded by Colonel Van Daalen.
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 403.
Source
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 86–88.
Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 403.