1911

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tagsyear, colonial, dutch, statistics, timeline, achehnese, administration, finance, aceh, ethical-politiek, education, islam, 20th-century, land-law, adat
aliasesYear 1911, 1911 AD, the year 1911, 1911 (year)

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1911 was a year of complex administrative accounting and ongoing logistical management in Acheh, situated within the Dutch East Indies. As the Dutch administration continued to stabilize its control over northern Sumatra, colonial records meticulously tracked the financial overhead of the Aceh War’s aftermath, alongside the movement of export commodities and colonial supplies.

Statistical and Administrative Record

The Atjeh up to date compilation preserves extensive tabular data for 1911, illustrating the material scale of the colonial enterprise:

  • Financial Expenditures: Aggregate colonial financial lines for 1911 record outlays reaching 7,757,821 guilders. Specific departmental ledgers show distinct allocations, such as 1,374,616 and 1,898,980 in separate accounting categories, alongside secondary ledgers showing 971,916 and 933,063.
  • Trade and Logistics: Monthly and annual tracking of shipping and trade metrics shows highly variable figures, including 79,850; 166,450; 108,678; 208,104; and 300,365 across various regional and commodity categories.
  • Shipping Registries: Vessel arrivals and tonnage registries for the year record specific logistical movements indexed at 107, 243, and 75 in primary tracking columns, with further metrics at 106,600 and 180,929.

Account from Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis (1955)

The following account is drawn from the parliamentary history of the Dutch Second Chamber as narrated by Vermeulen in the colonial section of the 1955 fourth revised edition of Rengers’s *Schets*.

1911 is the year in which Snouck Hurgronje’s lectures Nederland en de Islam ([[1911)|Nederland en de Islam]] were published, and the year of the Indische begrotingsdebat in the Tweede Kamer that crystallised around them. It is also the year in which Kuyper (a.r.) used those lectures to corner the minister De Waal Malefijt on the question of government support for Christian zending in the Indies — including, by direct implication, the recently-pacified territories of Atjeh.

Snouck Hurgronje’s Nederland en de Islam

The series of lectures that Snouck Hurgronje — advisor to the Ministerie van Koloniën — had given to future colonial civil servants appeared in print in 1911 under the title Nederland en de Islam ([[1911)|Nederland en de Islam]]. In them Snouck argued that the Dutch state — religiously neutral — could not, and should not, attempt to convert its Muslim subjects to Christianity. The state should confine itself to “een actie, die bedoelt de inlanders op veel steviger wijze dan tot dusver het geval is, bij ons staatsverband en bij onze nationaliteit in te lijven” — an action intended to incorporate the natives far more firmly than hitherto into our state-association and our nationality. Snouck hoped that, with a proper associatiepolitiek, the Indonesians would of their own free will remain as equals within the realm.

The 1911 begrotingsdebat

The Indische begrotingsdebat of 1911 “concentreerde zich vooral om de door deze adviseur van het ministerie van Koloniën ontvouwde denkbeelden” — concentrated especially on the ideas unfolded by this advisor of the Ministry of Colonies. Kuyper (a.r.) mounted a principled argument against Snouck’s position, calling for bizonder onderwijs — confessional schools — to be the rule in the Indies and gouvernementsonderwijs a mere supplement. He warned that an actively Christian propaganda would be the lesser evil when compared with leaving the population to “het hindoeisme terug doen zinken” — sink back into Hinduism.

Malefijt’s response

De Waal Malefijt — minister of Colonies — replied that he adhered to the position of his predecessors: no direct support to the zending (missions), but strong support where the missions operated on social terrain. Kuyper’s rule for confessional schools was, in his view, possible only in a few regions of the Buitenbezittingen where the missions had gained a firm foothold; on Java, where the Muslim majority lacked the organisation to act on its own initiative, the rule was inapplicable. The incident, which in its day caused considerable stir, was — in Vermeulen’s verdict — perhaps most of all a symptom of the “geprikkelde stemming” between Kuyper and the Malefijt-Heemskerk government.

Account from Atjeh by H.C. Zentgraff (1938)

Zentgraff records 1911 as the final round of the Tiro-oelama pursuit. In March 1911 Keutjhi Maha — the old pawang rimoeëng of Tangsé — was killed by a hinderlaag of Van Dongelen’s brigade. On 27 May 1911 Tgk. Oeléë Toetoë — schoonzoon of Tgk. Sjech Saman di Tiro — was killed by Schmidt’s brigades. On 29 September 1911 Habib Teupin Wan was killed by Schmidt’s brigade in his forest schuilplaats at the Aloeë Blang Djeuraloh: de Habib hield met zijn bende stand; zij schaarden zich om den grijzen Oelama, en zij vochten met karabijn, klewang en rentjong zoolang er leven in hen was. Tgk. Hasjim — zwager of Tgk. Sjech Saman di Tiro — was also killed that year. Only the boy Tgk. Tjhi Maät remained, but he had been killed already on 9 December 1910 by Nussy.

Zentgraff records Schmidt’s last attempt to save the boy. Through Tengkoe di Teupin Raja of the moesapat at Sigli, Schmidt applied to the widow of Tgk. Oeléë Toetoë — who was a daughter of the great Tgk. Sjech Saman di Tiro, and so the boy’s aunt. She went into the forest and returned with the answer: “Hana djalan, Toean. Dji haro’s keu sjahid lagèë koedjih!” — There is no means, sir. He wants to become sjahid like his father. Zijn dood sloot het epos der Tiro-oelama’s af: de onverzoenlijke en sterke mannen die in de dagen onzer zwakte ons met vernederingen om de ooren sloegen.

Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia.

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

1911 brought the great improvement, the monthly reports habitually opening “the political situation remained favourable” (“the political situation remained favourable”). In January a great meeting of the resistance party at Seureulo was dispersed; Tgk. di Barat returned to the upper Keureutòë in June; the Telongbende was broken in the Meergebied and Keutjhi’ Saman killed; Tgk. Moehamat Haroen and Habib Teupin Wan fell in Pidië; Keutjhi’ Bén of Geumpang was killed in September on the west coast; Lebé Grondong was reported killed in March in the Gajò Loeös but reappeared in September. In December H. J. Schmidt completed his commission with the death of Tgk. Ma’at. Resistance losses: 407 dead, twenty-two wounded, 178 firearms. In July a controleur took over the administration of Pidië; oil palm cultivation began; and on 18 November 1911 H. N. A. Swart was promoted Generaal-Majoor.

The introduction of verjaring into Atjehnese customary law (26 April 1911)

1911 was the year in which verjaring — prescription, or the limitation of actions by lapse of time — was introduced into the customary law of Atjeh by administrative act. D. W. N. de Boer, a former chairman of Atjehnese moesapat and landschapsgerecht courts, stated the position flatly: “Verjaring kwam in het Atjehsch adatrecht niet voor; doch werd dit instituut van bestuurswege ingevoerd” — prescription did not occur in Atjehnese customary law, but the institution was introduced by the administration.

Three documents of the year record the sequence:

The decree recited that the treatment of old claims of debt by the moesapat’s of the gewest took place very differently, prescription being applied “geheel willekeurig dan eens wel, dan weer geen” — quite arbitrarily, now applied and now not — and that in the interest of a good administration of justice it was desirable to bring unity into the matter. It grounded the innovation on three further considerations: that Islam too, under certain reservations, recognised prescription; that even before the Netherlands establishment, in many districts under the adat, no right was done upon claims which a plaintiff had without valid reason omitted to bring for fifteen years; and that both the Atjehnese chiefs and the Mohammedan schriftgeleerden (scholars) perceived the desirability and the necessity of regulating the matter.

The operative provision determined that all inheritance claims should be prescribed after an uninterrupted lapse of fifteen or ten years, according as they were written (beschreven) or unwritten (onbeschreven).

See Also

Source

Atjeh up to date (Statistical and Administrative Compilation, c. 1914). Archival reference DLP-10. Fragmentary OCR extraction containing financial ledgers, shipping registries, and colonial budget tables for 1911.

De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914, Deel I, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen, Aflevering X (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), p. 9 (section “De Landschapskassen”), Bijlage (landschapskas statistical tables)

1911 was a year of complex administrative accounting and ongoing logistical management in Acheh, situated within the Dutch East Indies. As the Dutch administration continued to stabilize its control over northern Sumatra, colonial records meticulously tracked the financial overhead of the Aceh War’s aftermath, alongside the movement of export commodities and colonial supplies.

Schets eener parlementaire geschiedenis van Nederland van 1849 tot 1901, by Mr W. J. van Welderen baron Rengers, 4th rev. ed., Vol. IV: Oost-Indië 1891-1918 by Dr W. H. Vermeulen (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1955), pp. 281-282, 319-320.

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), passim.

Het recht op den grond in Atjeh (“The Right to the Soil in Atjeh”), by D. W. N. de Boer, dated Scheveningen, November 1931, pp. 59-80. Offprint DLP-141, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, ‘s-Gravenhage; Bibliotheek KITLV accession 0060 4460 60 081470 428.

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