Van Sluys was the Dutch resident who succeeded H. N. A. Swart on 2 September 1918 as the first purely civil Governor of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden.
At a solemn gathering in the Governor’s residence Swart handed over the government to “den aangewezen opvolger-Gouverneur, resident van Sluys”, and delivered his farewell address, noting that with the transfer “an important piece of Atjeh history” was closed and an absolute separation of civil and military authority effected. I. Feenstra described the handover as that of “the last military governor to his successor, the first purely civil one.”
Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)
A. G. H. van Sluys was the first civilian Governor of Atjeh and Onderhoorigheden, who took office on 27 September 1918 upon the definitive separation of civil and military authority and was still administering the province when Joh. Langhout’s Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923) — to which he contributed an introductory word — went to press. Where the pacification had been prepared by earlier governors, brought about in principle under Van Heutsz and Van Daalen and completed under General Swart, it fell to Van Sluys, in Langhout’s phrase, “to apply that pacification”.
Principles of his administration
At the transfer of the government Van Sluys declared that what the Atjehnese population needed first of all was rest — rest to devote itself properly to the enlargement of its plantations, house-building, the improvement of its cattle-stock and all that could make it economically stronger — and that taxes, heerendiensten (statute labour) and other services should therefore not be raised, and where possible be reduced. When the commander of the Netherlands forces in India, General C. J. Snijders, visited the Indies in 1920, Van Sluys spoke at Koeta Radja the words: “Het ‘militair’ moet steeds middel blijven er te komen; doel mag het nimmer worden” (“The ‘military’ must always remain a means to get there; it may never become a goal”).
Asked at the end of 1921 by a contributor to the Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad what became of the “animosity” between the civil and military powers in Atjeh, Van Sluys answered: “Dat is allemaal onzin!” (“That is all nonsense!”) — the replacement of military by civil authority necessarily brought a ceding and an assuming of competences, and it was only human that here or there a difference of opinion arose, which, however, never came to expression. That cooperation allowed him to follow the road taken by his predecessor for the economic revival of the province.
Measures, 1918–1922
- Mental health. One of his first measures was an inquiry into the frequent occurrence of insanity among the Atjehnese population: nominal returns made by the administrative officials showed a total of 1,100 insane persons, and on his report the well-known Batavia psychiatrist Dr. F. H. van Loon was sent to Atjeh in 1920 for a psychiatric investigation, visiting many places and examining 215 patients; he concluded that the Governor was wholly right in deeming the admission of all sufferers into an institution desirable, also in the interest of the further pacification.
- Education. The school institutions created under Swart were brought to greater bloom: after two years of his government (1920) the number of schools had grown by 28%, that of pupils by almost 30%, and that of girl pupils by more than 121%; in 1921 the total of native children receiving instruction was 25,000. A technical investigation into the inspection of popular education, transferred in 1918 to the inspection of ordinary lower Indian education, led to a conference of January 1920 at Batavia under the Director of Education.
- Conferences and freedoms. Like Swart, Van Sluys held periodic conferences of all administrative officials, that of September 1921 at Koeta Radja again under his leadership; from 1921, at his request, self-governing rulers and chiefs with sufficient command of Dutch took part. At that conference he could announce that the special restrictions on travel for the native population had been withdrawn and that Atjeh, as the last province, had been brought under the general very liberal provisions in force in the rest of the Indies.
- Agriculture and estates. Rice cultivation stood at a high level, but the old people’s culture of pepper declined (4,340,000 kg exported in 1919, 2,658,000 kg in 1920), and copra likewise fell (from 6 to 4 million kg); lower copra prices turned the population to oil preparation, for which, with the support of the Governor and the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij, a small co-operative oil-distilling establishment arose at Tapa Toean. Pinang cultivation bloomed; patchouli (tilem) spread on the West Coast, where the Atjehsche Handelmaatschappij had long run a kapok-press at Tapa Toean exporting over 300,000 kg yearly.
- Roads and labour. Early in 1919 the construction and maintenance of works of art in the main roads were entrusted to the Department of Public Works (Burgerlijke Openbare Werken); from 1 January 1919 no statute labour might be demanded for the motorable main roads of Groot-Atjeh, and the heerediensten for the connecting road Koeta Radja–Medan were likewise abolished.
- Local funds. The commissions for the local funds (plaatselijke fondsen) instituted by his predecessor were gradually extended, and in 1922 he gave them a new regulation; since every section of the population was represented in these commissions, autonomy was introduced in embryonic state for several places of Atjeh — “gemeenteraden in spé” (municipal councils, as it were) whose meetings were faithfully reported and discussed by the Atjehsch Nieuwsblad.
Atjeh in 1923
Interviewed in Holland, Van Sluys declared that everything the Government did for the province must be viewed from the standpoint of pacification: Koeta Radja, except for a small portion of Atjeh, could be reached by car from Medan and by train (through the completion of the Pangkalan Brandan–Besitang link) via Langsar, Lho Seumawè and Sigli, but the interior had still to be freed from its isolation — a connecting line was needed from Sigli to Meulaboh, thence to Singkel and to Koeta Radja, a road from Koeta Tjane to Blang Kedjeren and Takengon, and more roads on the North Coast. The landscape treasuries had just enough to maintain their own lands and roads; “De Regeering alleen zal voor de in Atjeh noodige verdere pacificatiemiddelen geld moeten geven!… Veel geld!” (“The Government alone will have to supply money for the further means of pacification needed in Atjeh!… Much money!”).
During Van Sluys’s leave the Member of the Council of the Indies Frijling acted as Government Commissioner until the beginning of 1923 and, after travelling the whole province — West Coast, Groot-Atjeh, North and East Coasts and the Gajo lands, including the arduous journey to the Gajoloeös — declared without reservation that he had found Atjeh “in zéer vooruitgaanden staat” (“in a very progressing state”), with rest and order prevailing, and judged the lines of government laid out by Van Sluys wholly correct.
See Also
- H. N. A. Swart
- General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh (1943)
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Atjeh
- Separation of civil and military authority in Atjeh (1918)
- Pacification of Atjeh
- Frijling
- F. H. van Loon
- Government of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- 1918
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.
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), “Gouverneur Van Sluijs over Atjeh”, and pp. 113–125.