J. H. van der Palm was a Dutch correspondent and personal friend of Anton Reinhard Falck, the Netherlands’ chief colonial negotiator at the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London of 1824. He is preserved in the historical record chiefly through a single celebrated private letter addressed to him by Falck on 7 April 1824, in which the minister gave vent to his elation over the treaty just concluded with Great Britain.
Friend of Falck
Van der Palm’s first names and biographical particulars receive only incidental notice in P. H. van der Kemp’s 1900 article. He is identified simply as Falck’s friend and as the recipient of “Falck’s Brieven” (Falck’s Letters), letter No. 146, in which the minister confessed his sense of triumph over the diplomatic result obtained at London. The friendship itself belongs to the cultivated circle of early nineteenth-century Dutch officialdom in which classical learning, colonial statecraft, and personal correspondence freely intermingled; the fact that Falck confided his private impressions to Van der Palm suggests that the latter was a trusted confidant rather than a mere acquaintance.
The Letter of 7 April 1824
Falck’s letter, written from The Hague barely three weeks after the signing of the treaty of 17 March 1824, contained the oft-quoted passage in which the minister rejoiced that “the entire island of Sumatra (Java minor) is at last withdrawn from British influence and placed within the sphere of Netherlands policy.” Falck added the hope that the work might prove “both prudent and liberal in its duration.” Van der Kemp introduces the letter at the close of his sixth section precisely to underline the gap between Falck’s expectations and the bitter disillusion that would follow: the Pinang Nota of Fullerton and the long Anglo-Dutch wrangle over Acheh were already incubating within the treaty’s ambiguous articles.
Significance for Van der Kemp’s Argument
For Van der Kemp, Van der Palm’s chief importance is bibliographical: as the addressee of a letter preserved in the printed collection of Falck’s correspondence, he provides the documentary hook by which the historian can show that Dutch officials themselves believed, in the spring of 1824, that Sumatra had been secured for the Netherlands. That belief, Van der Kemp insists, was profoundly mistaken; the Acheh-convention of Raffles, smuggled into the London negotiations by the British plenipotentiaries, would within months be resurrected as a “dead letter” brought back to life, precisely as the suzerainty question would later trouble Anglo-Dutch relations on the Transvaal.
See Also
- Anton Reinhard Falck
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824)
- Pinang Nota (1825)
- Robert Fullerton
- P. H. van der Kemp
Source
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.
J. H. van der Palm was a Dutch correspondent and personal friend of Anton Reinhard Falck, the Netherlands’ chief colonial negotiator at the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London of 1824. He is preserved in the historical record chiefly through a single celebrated private letter addressed to him by Falck on 7 April 1824, in which the minister gave vent to his elation over the treaty just concluded with Great Britain.
Friend of Falck
Van der Palm’s first names and biographical particulars receive only incidental notice in P. H. van der Kemp’s 1900 article. He is identified simply as Falck’s friend and as the recipient of “Falck’s Brieven” (Falck’s Letters), letter No. 146, in which the minister confessed his sense of triumph over the diplomatic result obtained at London. The friendship itself belongs to the cultivated circle of early nineteenth-century Dutch officialdom in which classical learning, colonial statecraft, and personal correspondence freely intermingled; the fact that Falck confided his private impressions to Van der Palm suggests that the latter was a trusted confidant rather than a mere acquaintance.
The Letter of 7 April 1824
Falck’s letter, written from The Hague barely three weeks after the signing of the treaty of 17 March 1824, contained the oft-quoted passage in which the minister rejoiced that “the entire island of Sumatra (Java minor) is at last withdrawn from British influence and placed within the sphere of Netherlands policy.” Falck added the hope that the work might prove “both prudent and liberal in its duration.” Van der Kemp introduces the letter at the close of his sixth section precisely to underline the gap between Falck’s expectations and the bitter disillusion that would follow: the Pinang Nota of Fullerton and the long Anglo-Dutch wrangle over Acheh were already incubating within the treaty’s ambiguous articles.
Significance for Van der Kemp’s Argument
For Van der Kemp, Van der Palm’s chief importance is bibliographical: as the addressee of a letter preserved in the printed collection of Falck’s correspondence, he provides the documentary hook by which the historian can show that Dutch officials themselves believed, in the spring of 1824, that Sumatra had been secured for the Netherlands. That belief, Van der Kemp insists, was profoundly mistaken; the Acheh-convention of Raffles, smuggled into the London negotiations by the British plenipotentiaries, would within months be resurrected as a “dead letter” brought back to life, precisely as the suzerainty question would later trouble Anglo-Dutch relations on the Transvaal.
See Also
- Anton Reinhard Falck
- Anglo-Dutch Treaty of London (1824)
- Pinang Nota (1825)
- Robert Fullerton
- P. H. van der Kemp
Source
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.