J. P. graaf van Limburg Stirum — Jan Pieter, count (graaf) Van Limburg Stirum (1863-1936) — was a Dutch liberal politician who, in Vermeulen’s retrospective, supplied the most lapidary formulation of the moral ambiguity of the modern colonial enterprise. The remark is preserved alongside Bergsma’s thought-experiment as a counter-weight to the consensus of the ethical-policy state.
The “rijk aan wensen, arm aan tevredenheid” formulation
Vermeulen cites Van Limburg Stirum’s view of the relation of the modern colonising powers to the indigenous populations in the following form:
“Zij leggen straten, spoorwegen aan en doen allerlei wonderbare dingen die het land rijk maken. Maar feitelijk maken zij hen rijk aan wensen en arm aan tevredenheid”.
— They lay streets, railways, and do all kinds of wonderful things that make the land rich. But in fact they make them rich in wishes and poor in contentment.
Significance
Van Limburg Stirum’s formulation is, in Vermeulen’s retrospective, the canonical liberal statement of the moral paradox of the ethical-policy state — that the very uplift of the colonial population, by raising its expectations, also raised its discontent. The formulation is preserved alongside Bergsma’s thought-experiment as a counter-weight to the consensus that irrigation, education and regional councils were, by their nature, blessings. “Wie zou hier durven kiezen, wie oordelen?” — who would dare choose here, who judge? — is Vermeulen’s comment.
On Atjeh
Van Limburg Stirum’s observation bears directly on the post-pacificatie administration of Atjeh, where the construction of roads, telegraph lines, irrigation works and (after 1904) administrative posts was the principal material content of the ethische politiek in action. The paradox he identifies — that improvement generates discontent — would prove characteristic of the Atjehnese post-conquest decades.
See Also
Source
Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis van Nederland van 1849 tot 1901, by Mr W. J. van Welderen baron Rengers, 4th rev. ed., Vol. IV: Oost-Indië 1891-1918 by Dr W. H. Vermeulen (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1955), p. 355.