R. van de Werk was the president (Mr., i.e. a law graduate by title) of the Amsterdam voters’ association Kiesvereeniging Burgerpligt, whose opening words of 26 January 1886 introduce the printed pamphlet of Verstege’s lecture on the Atjeh question.
His opening speech
Van de Werk explained that in the choice of the subject one should not see any approval or disapproval by the governing commission of Burgerpligt of the Atjeh policy followed in earlier years or at that moment, nor any wish about the desirability of consolidating the then introduced order of things in Atjeh, of returning to it, or of breaking with the concentration system; the board was fully convinced that only competent experts had to enlighten and advise here. He pointed out that this great question — of such financial and general political importance both for the overseas possessions and for the mother country — had been dealt with almost exclusively within military and, to some degree, Indian circles, and that the calm, “not to say indifference”, with which the Dutch people had watched a thirteen-year war, which had already cost so many human lives and millions upon millions of money, and which could end only in the most honourable way for the fatherland, was to a great extent to be explained by the purely military side of the matter and by the equally great unfamiliarity with Indian conditions. The board’s wish was to bring about, by public treatment, a conviction, resting on good grounds, that change would have to come in the existing state of things as soon as possible and that the period of trials had to be closed for good. Noting the fact that an unusually large number of interested persons had appeared at the meeting, and that the association could present as introducer the Heer Verstege, “a known speciality on military as well as on Indian ground”, he gave the floor to the lecturer.
See Also
- Kiesvereeniging Burgerpligt
- J. J. W. E. Verstege
- Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk (Verstege, 1886)
- 1886
Source
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. iii-iv. OCR-filename: 20260801_235605_DLP-158-Een_beroep_op_het_Nederlandsche_volk_in_zake_het_Atjeh_vraagstuk_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.