Schout-bij-nacht Geerling was the Kommandant der Zeemacht (commander of the naval forces) in the Netherlands Indies at the time of the Aceh War’s beginning. Verstege, discussing the traditionally neglected state of the Indies squadron, recalls that Geerling in his report of 17 October 1874 pointed out that the condition of the squadron that had in the first place to support energetic action against Atjeh was “allertreurigst” (most deplorable), and adds that his predecessor — the then commander of the naval force — had, “and rightly so”, pointed out in the council meeting of 21 February 1873 (which decided the first Atjeh expedition) the inadequate state of the navy in the Netherlands Indies, a state to which the government’s attention had so often been drawn before; the state of the Indies squadron, Verstege remarks, was again made painfully clear by the blockade policy of 1884-1885, without any sign that improvement was being thought of (after generaal Booms’ Historische kritiek, p. 101).
See Also
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. 121-122. OCR-filename: 20260801_235605_DLP-158-Een_beroep_op_het_Nederlandsche_volk_in_zake_het_Atjeh_vraagstuk_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.