Kroesen was a Dutch contrôleur serving with the civil administration of the geconcentreerde linie in Groot-Atjeh in 1896 who, in March of that year, received from Toekoe Ketjik Oemar — an Atjehnese auxiliary of the defecting warlord Toekoe Djohan Pahalawan — the warning that allowed the Dutch to take onmiddellijk krachtige maatregelen (immediate forceful measures) in response to Djohan’s defection. He is named in the Atjeh-Album of 1896 in the chapter Een Trouwe Inlander — A Faithful Native — as the Dutch officer to whom the warning was delivered.
The warning of 1896
The Atjeh-Album records that, in the immediate aftermath of Djohan’s defection, almost all of the Atjehnese chiefs on the Dutch side went over to the defector. Against this background, Toekoe Ketjik Oemar — one of Djohan’s volgelingen (followers) — secretly warned the contrôleur Kroesen that Djohan would not march on Lamkrak as he had been ordered, but that he instead intended to attack the Dutch troops unexpectedly at the most favourable opportunity. The warning was, in the album’s reading, the proximate cause of the Dutch ability to respond effectively to the defection.
The Dutch response
The Atjeh-Album records that Kroesen’s receipt of the warning deed den toeleg mislukken (made the design fail) and allowed the regeering to take onmiddellijk krachtige maatregelen — the relief of Biloel and Lamkoenjit and the battle of Tjot Rang of April 1896. The album’s tribute to Kroesen’s informant — En aan Toekoe Ketjik Oemar is het te danken, dat de regeering onmiddellijk krachtige maatregelen kon nemen, en dat het verraad van Djohan nog niet ernstiger gevolgen heeft gehad — places the contrôleur at the centre of the Dutch response to the defection, and it identifies the civil administration of the geconcentreerde linie as the channel through which the warning was transmitted.
Significance
Kroesen’s significance in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog is as the Dutch contrôleur who received Toekoe Ketjik Oemar’s warning of Djohan’s planned attack, and who transmitted it to the regeering in time for the Dutch to take effective measures. His appearance in the Atjeh-Album of 1896 is brief, but it identifies the civil administration of the geconcentreerde linie as the institutional channel through which Atjehnese intelligence reached the Dutch military command in the spring of 1896, and it establishes the role of the contrôleur as the principal Dutch intermediary with the oeloebalang class.
See Also
- Toekoe Ketjik Oemar
- Toekoe Oemar
- Toekoe Oemar’s defection (1896)
- Lamkrak
- Relief of Biloel and Lamkoenjit (April 1896)
- Battle of Tjot Rang (14 April 1896)
- Geconcentreerde linie
- Groot-Atjeh
- Aceh War
- 1896
- Atjeh-Album (Eigen Haard, 1896)
Source
Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896, pp. 28–29 (Een Trouwe Inlander).