J. Pauw was the Resident of Atjèh from 30 September 1938 until the Japanese invasion of March 1942, succeeding Resident Jongejans in the post and presiding over the residency during the last years of Dutch rule and the crisis of the Pacific War. Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan characterises Pauw as one of “the excellent connoisseurs of Aceh’s land and people,” an administrator who “as few did … understood the psyche of the Acehnese people,” and whose “great interest in and his correct feeling for the political currents and relations” enabled him to “fully control the political relations in Atjèh.”
Appointment and character
Pauw was appointed Resident of Atjèh on 30 September 1938 as the successor of Resident Jongejans. His arrival in the residency coincided with a period in which “the political situation in Atjèh during the last years before the war could not be called anything but favorable” — the resistance actions that had flared up after the conclusion of the Atjèh War, of which the Bakóngan uprising (1925–1927) was the most serious and the action in Lhóng (1933) the last of significance, had been extinguished. The contemplative element in Pauw’s character, Piekaar records, “made him slow to make decisions, a trait which in later years, due to the nature of the illness that began to undermine his health, was accentuated.” His counterpart, the territorial commander Colonel G. F. V. Gosenson, was “just as vigorous and impulsive as Resident Pauw was contemplative.”
The 1941 government conference
In 1941, Resident Pauw took the initiative for a government conference — a “first tentative attempt … to give the population, through its administrators, some say in the management of general interests concerning the entire Residency.” Every sub-division was represented by an Indonesian administrator appointed by the Resident, and the department heads gave introductions on the purpose and activities of their departments. The conference was linked to the determination of the budget of the central management of the territorial treasuries. The initiative reflected Pauw’s recognition that the time had arrived to bring Atjèh “to development at a rapid pace through joint effort.”
Agricultural and economic policy
Under Residents Jongejans and Pauw, the action to expand Atjèh’s rice production — begun by the agricultural extension service — was “continued with ever-increasing success,” with projects for extensive irrigation works developed. Piekaar notes that “it was only the urgent need, in connection with the looming war, to make Sumatra independent for its food supply, which for all these plans to secure the full support of the departments of economic affairs and of transport and public works.” Spread over a number of years, the credits required for the various irrigation works would be made available at an accelerated pace.
The crisis of 1941–1942
When the Pacific War broke out on 8 December 1941, Pauw was the senior Dutch civilian in Atjèh. The unexpectedly rapid Japanese advance in the Malay Peninsula — the fall of Penang on 19 December 1941, Ipoh on 28 December, Kuala Lumpur on 11 January 1942, and Singapore on 15 February — put Atjèh in a strategically advanced position. The heavy bombing of Sabang on 22 January 1942 and the daily air reconnaissance flights over Atjèh had, Piekaar records, “a paralyzing effect on normal administrative activity.” On 10 and 11 March 1942, Pauw presided over the evacuation of the European civilian population still remaining in Koetaradja to Medan.
Internment and after
After the Dutch surrender on 28 March 1942, Pauw was interned by the Japanese. During the first year of internment, at Pauw’s request, the administrative officials then active in Aceh compiled the reports of events in their various administrative districts that would form the principal source of Piekaar’s first part of Atjèh and the War with Japan — drawn up “when the memory of these events was still fresh in the memory.”
See Also
- [Resident of Atjèh]
- [Gosenson]
- [Jongejans]
- [Bakóngan uprising]
- [Lhóng]
- [Atjèh Shimbun]
- [Koetaradja]
- [Sabang]
- [Medan]
- [1938]
- [1941]
- [8 December 1941]
- [12 March 1942]
- [28 March 1942]
Source
Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Foreword and Chapter I.
J. Pauw was the Resident of Atjèh from 30 September 1938 until the Japanese invasion of March 1942, succeeding Resident Jongejans in the post and presiding over the residency during the last years of Dutch rule and the crisis of the Pacific War. Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan characterises Pauw as one of “the excellent connoisseurs of Aceh’s land and people,” an administrator who “as few did … understood the psyche of the Acehnese people,” and whose “great interest in and his correct feeling for the political currents and relations” enabled him to “fully control the political relations in Atjèh.”
Appointment and character
Pauw was appointed Resident of Atjèh on 30 September 1938 as the successor of Resident Jongejans. His arrival in the residency coincided with a period in which “the political situation in Atjèh during the last years before the war could not be called anything but favorable” — the resistance actions that had flared up after the conclusion of the Atjèh War, of which the Bakóngan uprising (1925–1927) was the most serious and the action in Lhóng (1933) the last of significance, had been extinguished. The contemplative element in Pauw’s character, Piekaar records, “made him slow to make decisions, a trait which in later years, due to the nature of the illness that began to undermine his health, was accentuated.” His counterpart, the territorial commander Colonel G. F. V. Gosenson, was “just as vigorous and impulsive as Resident Pauw was contemplative.”
The 1941 government conference
In 1941, Resident Pauw took the initiative for a government conference — a “first tentative attempt … to give the population, through its administrators, some say in the management of general interests concerning the entire Residency.” Every sub-division was represented by an Indonesian administrator appointed by the Resident, and the department heads gave introductions on the purpose and activities of their departments. The conference was linked to the determination of the budget of the central management of the territorial treasuries. The initiative reflected Pauw’s recognition that the time had arrived to bring Atjèh “to development at a rapid pace through joint effort.”
Agricultural and economic policy
Under Residents Jongejans and Pauw, the action to expand Atjèh’s rice production — begun by the agricultural extension service — was “continued with ever-increasing success,” with projects for extensive irrigation works developed. Piekaar notes that “it was only the urgent need, in connection with the looming war, to make Sumatra independent for its food supply, which for all these plans to secure the full support of the departments of economic affairs and of transport and public works.” Spread over a number of years, the credits required for the various irrigation works would be made available at an accelerated pace.
The crisis of 1941–1942
When the Pacific War broke out on 8 December 1941, Pauw was the senior Dutch civilian in Atjèh. The unexpectedly rapid Japanese advance in the Malay Peninsula — the fall of Penang on 19 December 1941, Ipoh on 28 December, Kuala Lumpur on 11 January 1942, and Singapore on 15 February — put Atjèh in a strategically advanced position. The heavy bombing of Sabang on 22 January 1942 and the daily air reconnaissance flights over Atjèh had, Piekaar records, “a paralyzing effect on normal administrative activity.” On 10 and 11 March 1942, Pauw presided over the evacuation of the European civilian population still remaining in Koetaradja to Medan.
Internment and after
After the Dutch surrender on 28 March 1942, Pauw was interned by the Japanese. During the first year of internment, at Pauw’s request, the administrative officials then active in Aceh compiled the reports of events in their various administrative districts that would form the principal source of Piekaar’s first part of Atjèh and the War with Japan — drawn up “when the memory of these events was still fresh in the memory.”
See Also
- [Resident of Atjèh]
- [Gosenson]
- [Jongejans]
- [Bakóngan uprising]
- [Lhóng]
- [Atjèh Shimbun]
- [Koetaradja]
- [Sabang]
- [Medan]
- [1938]
- [1941]
- [8 December 1941]
- [12 March 1942]
- [28 March 1942]
Source
Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Foreword and Chapter I.