Oeleë Lheuë was the harbour of Koetaradja, the place where the kapal poetih (the white ship) arrived with the Dutch flag at half-stok when an officer had fallen. It was the point of arrival and departure for troops and supplies, and the place where bodies of officers killed on the Westkust were brought by boat.
The De Bruijn episode
When the kapal poetih arrived at Oeleë Lheuë with the flag halfstok, the chabar angin went as a loopend vuurtje through Koetaradja: „the lijk of an officer.“ The wife of a known kapitein — thinking it was her man — joeg from Koetaradja to Oeleë Lheuë, arriving at the steiger just as a sloep from the gouvernementstoomer aanlegde. A matroos came out with a dienstbrief. She greep the brief, scheurde the enveloppe open, and found — to her relief — that it was not her man’s name among the gesneuvelden. It was luitenant De Bruijn, killed in the loeëng ambush on the Westkust.
Other references
Oeleë Lheuë was the place where the Radja Moeda Teukoe Moehamad (under the éénoogige generaal Van der Heyden) worked to bring welvaart to the hoofdplaats, so that the gevluchte bevolking returned in niet te stuiten stroomen.
Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)
In den vroegen morgen van 22 September j.l. trokken velen per auto of extra-trein naar Oelèë Lheuë om getuige te zijn van het vertrek van den afgetreden Gouverneur Swart; the band played the Wilhelmus, Mevrouw Swart received flowers, and the couple went aboard the s.s. Nias by the sloop of H.M. Serdang, saluted by three cheers and the military salute.
Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)
Oelèë Lheue was the principal seaport of Groot-Atjeh and the debarkation place of the Dutch in 1873, connected by the first works of peace — road, môle, tramway and telegraph (1874–1876) — with the capital Koeta Radja five kilometres inland, and serving until the rise of Sabang as the province’s chief gateway for trade.
The first landing and works, 1873–1876
It was at Oelèë Lheue that Government Commissioner Nieuwenhuizen’s flotilla anchored in March 1873 and the first Dutch expedition debarked. The commission of 26 May 1874 proposed, and the Government on 26 June approved, the building of a môle (zeehoofd) of iron screw-piles at Oelèë Lheue, with an adjoining railway with steam-traction to Koeta Radja and a telegraphic connection; the môle came ready in 1875 and the line was opened to public traffic in 1876. The telegraph Oelèë Lheue–Koeta Radja entered service on 20 March 1875. The roadstead grew steadily busier; in July 1875 Oelèë Lheue and the adjacent Kampong Djawa counted 181 established traders, mostly Chinese, and a Chinese shipping company (reederij) was found there beside brick-kilns, lime-kilns and smithies.
Administration and quarantine
In 1875 the commandant entrusted equal jurisdiction over all direct subjects of the Government to the assistant-resident in Atjeh at Koeta Radja/Oelèë Lheue, also charging him with the notary’s office and the functions of registrar of births, deaths and marriages. Until 1882 all vessels arriving in the Government had to submit to visitation at Oelèë Lheue before putting into any other harbour; its abolition opened the whole coast of Atjeh to trade. The resolution of 29 May 1883 again confined import and export to the harbours with government officials — Oelèë Lheue in Groot-Atjeh, Sigli, Samelanga, Lho Seumawè and Idi on the North and East Coasts, and Meulaboh on the West Coast — and under the Concentration after 1884 Oelèë Lheue alone of the harbours remained open, the entire fishery being forbidden.
Trade statistics and later years
The port’s import trade was vividly alive: in 1890 some three million guilders’ worth of imports passed Oelèë Lheue; in that year 51 steamships called (39 departing), and from outside the Netherlands Indies there arrived 19 sailing and 135 steam vessels (20 sailing and 143 steam vessels departing). In the slump year 1896 imports fell back; the principal import articles over 1896–1898 were foodstuffs (f 411,295 → f 380,713), rice (5,116,980 → 4,448,070 kg), petroleum (673,848 → 1,473,588 litres), tobacco (c. 75,000 kg), flour, dried fish and manufactures (f 109,060 → f 162,175; the latter figure rising to f 4,889,522 by 1904). In 1901 the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij opened a sub-agency here (20 October), removed to Koeta Radja in 1904. The first girls’ school of the province opened at Oelèë Lheue in 1910. Under the Sabang mail service the post office was enlarged (1903–1904), the Atjeh Transport Maatschappij maintained a regular service with Sabang, and a government land telegraph-line connected Oelèë Lheue with Medan in 1912. By 1922, however, the import and export of Oelèë Lheue was gradually diminishing, the trade having shifted to Langsar, Lho Seumawè and Sabang, as Director N. van Zalinge reported.
In the eye survey of Groot-Atjeh (1937)
Oelee-Lheuë was one of the places examined in Dr. C. E. Gomperts’s eye survey of 1937, and the district that furnished the key comparison on trachoma.
It was one of only four places in Groot-Atjeh not populated exclusively by Atjehnese — with Koetaradja, Lho-Nga and Seulimeum — though the admixture with Malays, Padangers and other indigenous races was “zeer gering.” Because trachoma occurred in typical form among those other races, Gomperts reasoned that if the conjunctivitis follicularis he was finding belonged to trachoma, it should be concentrated in such places. At Oelee-Lheuë 78 cases were found among 1,325 children examined — 6 per cent — but in the exclusively Atjehnese Moekim Montassie 75 among 1,795, rather more than 4 per cent: a difference too small to support the theory.
Oelee-Lheuë was also named among the districts where Western influence had penetrated further, giving a measure of venereal infection and hence of its small share among the causes of blindness.
See Also
- Koetaradja
- Van der Heyden
- Dokarim
- Aceh War
- H. N. A. Swart
- General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh (1943)
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Atjeh
- Koeta Radja
- Atjeh Tram
- Sabang
- Scheepvaartregeling in Atjeh
- Government of Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden
- Oriënteerend oogheelkundig onderzoek bij de Atjehsche bevolking van Groot-Atjeh gedurende 1937
- C. E. Gomperts
- Trachoma in Groot-Atjeh
- Blindheid in Groot-Atjeh
- Montassik
- Oogheelkundig kampongonderzoek in Groot-Atjeh (Maart-December 1937)
Source
Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia. OCR-filename: 20260709_002148_DLP-81-Atjeh_OCR.txt.
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), pp. 31–34, 41, 47–48, 53, 60, 66–68, 76, 87, 101, 109, 121, 127, 133, 149, 155, 178–179 and Errata.
Oriënteerend oogheelkundig onderzoek bij de Atjehsche bevolking van Groot-Atjeh gedurende 1937 (“Orienting Ophthalmological Survey among the Atjehnese Population of Groot-Atjeh during 1937”), by Dr. C. E. Gomperts, offprint from the Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië, Afl. 19, Deel 80 (1940), pp. 1191-1238 (Batavia-Centrum: G. Kolff & Co.). Received by the editors 25 October 1939. Offprint DLP-157, Bibliotheek KITLV.