Van Aken was the Dutch Governor of Atjeh whom du Croo called “the most excellent administrator after Swart” and “a figure likewise generally esteemed and beloved”.
Du Croo’s sixth summary proposition names Van Aken as the best example of a successor formed in H. N. A. Swart’s administrative school: “Both Swart’s period of government and that of Van Aken have undoubtedly been the most fruitful for Atjeh; unfortunately that of Van Aken — he was appointed a member of the Council of the Netherlands Indies and died shortly afterwards — was of relatively short, too short a duration.” At the handover of the government to Resident Jongejans on Saturday 7 March 1936 Van Aken declared the sub-divisions Alaslanden, Lam Meulò, Meulaboh and Tapa’ Toean “made entirely ripe … for civil administration”, and that only considerations of economy had restrained him from proposing it — the passage with which du Croo closed his book, calling it “the keystone of the pacification.”
See Also
Source
Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter XVI, XVII.