1917

The year 1917 was, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account, the year of publication of the Bureau’s De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 1: Sumatra, Algemeene Hoofdstukken — the opening instalment of the Bureau’s planned regional survey of Sumatra, and the most comprehensive published Dutch treatment of the orography, hydrography, climate and indigenous administration of Sumatra as a whole. The year 1917 is the terminus ad quem of the Bureau’s pre-war survey of the Sumatran gewesten, and the canonical pre-war reference for the physical and administrative geography of Atjeh.

Account from De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 1 (1917) — 1917

The year 1917 was, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account, the year of publication of the Bureau’s De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 1: Sumatra, Algemeene Hoofdstukken — the opening instalment of the Bureau’s planned regional survey of Sumatra, and the most comprehensive published Dutch treatment of the orography, hydrography, climate and indigenous administration of Sumatra as a whole. The year 1917 is the terminus ad quem of the Bureau’s pre-war survey of the Sumatran gewesten, and the canonical pre-war reference for the physical and administrative geography of Atjeh.

People

• J. Kreemer — personally traversed the Gajo-weg (the road connecting the N.E. coast of Atjeh with the interior Gayo country) in 1917, and observed on its steep descents that the buffalo-cart drivers made use of wooden brake-shoes (remschoen).

Places

• Gajo-weg — the road connecting the N.E. coast of Atjeh with the interior Gayo highlands, traversed by Kreemer in 1917.
• Gajoland — the interior Gayo highlands, terminus of the Gajo-weg.
• N.O.-kust van Atjeh — the Atjehnese north-east coast, terminus of the Gajo-weg.

Significance

Statistical and Administrative Record

The year 1917 is primarily documented in the Atjeh up to date compilation through multi-year colonial spending plans. The surviving ledgers from this period focus on standardized, predictable provincial budgets:

• Budgetary Projections: Colonial ledgers outline specific allocations for 1917, recording initial project or administrative spending at 154,650 guilders, with a broader aggregate budget category reaching 386,625 guilders.
• Administrative Consolidation: These figures reflect a colony transitioning from the extreme, unpredictable costs of active guerrilla warfare to a stabilized, revenue-generating colonial province. The financial overhead of maintaining the KNIL garrisons and local infrastructure was being absorbed into routine multi-year provincial budgets.

The Atjehsche hoofden opleiding of 1916

The year 1917 is also the year in which the G.B. of 27 June 1916 No. 7 — by which, for the school year 1916/1917, up to 20 sons of Atjehsche chiefs could also be trained at the training school for Inlandsch teachers at Fort de Koek for the administrative sphere — came into effect. The Atjehsche hoofden opleiding of 1916–1917 is the staff history’s principal instance of the Dutch colonial state’s programme for the indigenisation of the Atjeh administrative officials, and the principal evidence of the Bureau’s 1917 judgement that the programme was insufficient — both quantitatively and qualitatively.

The Atjehsche hoofden opleiding of 1916

The year 1917 is also the year in which the G.B. of 27 June 1916 No. 7 — by which, for the school year 1916/1917, up to 20 sons of Atjehsche chiefs could also be trained at the training school for Inlandsch teachers at Fort de Koek for the administrative sphere — came into effect. The Atjehsche hoofden opleiding of 1916–1917 is the staff history’s principal instance of the Dutch colonial state’s programme for the indigenisation of the Atjeh administrative officials, and the principal evidence of the Bureau’s 1917 judgement that the programme was insufficient — both quantitatively and qualitatively.

The publication of Deel II, Aflevering 1

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

Zentgraff records 1917 as the year the vermaarde oelama Tengkoe di Paja Bakong — alias Tgk. di Mata Ië, the Heer der bronnen — was killed. On 16 July 1917 a patrol under the Inlandsche sergeant Toegimin, patrolling near Samarkilang, found an onbegroeide ladang with two hutjes. Two Atjehers were shot; one had a strongly-opgezet been from an earlier wound (the 1913 wound by Behrens at Aloeë Garöt). The Tengkoe’s wife identified him by his voetringen. His followers formed the Samarkilang bende, whose head was not gevangen genomen until 1937, twenty years later.

Zentgraff also notes that 1917 was the year the oelama’s of Peureula formally declared: Er is geen oorlog, dus men kan geen sjahid (martelaar voor het geloof) worden — “there is no war, so one cannot become a sjahid (martyr of the faith).” Dacht het volk er anders over, Zentgraff observes, deze oorlog zou in de latere jaren een geheel ander karakter hebben gehad — had the people thought differently, the war would have taken a wholly different character in the later years.

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

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

In 1917 Tgk. di Mata Ië, last of the three great resistance leaders of the north coast, was killed near Samarkilang on 10 July; a leper murdered the officier van gezondheid dr. J. Ph. Andriesse at Lho’ Soekon; at Langsa an Acehnese killed Jahnke in a fit of religious mania. In December a religious movement at Serbödjadi under Penghoeloe Koeala cost the gezaghebber of Lököp his life, and on 29 December lieutenant G. F. P. Gosenson was gravely wounded at Djeuram in an attack organised by Tgk. Poeti’. “More and more the population is applying itself to the planting of rubber”, the Koloniaal Verslag recorded.

Revision of the sawah head reserve at Sawang (1917)

In 1917 the customary reserve of ground at the head of a rice field was restated in metric measure in the landschap Sawang, onderafdeeling Lho’ Seumaweh, afdeeling Noordkust van Atjeh.

The possessor of a sawah could assert a priority right against a new clearer over adjoining ground at the oeloe — the head-end, the higher-lying part — of his field, the purpose being to reserve him a place for a veldhuisje (a small dwelling in the field), a watch-house and the like. The reserve extended over a maximum of one thirhōm idja: the distance of a single throw of the idja or shoulder-cloth, rolled up tightly and cast once, reckoned at about twenty-five metres, measured from the kepala (head) of the sawah. The right was granted only over ground not destined for rice cultivation, and never over ground suitable for extending a sawah complex — a limit the Atjehnese expressed by saying that the right “wordt niet toegekend buiten de ateueng,” is not granted beyond the little rice-field dikes.

D. W. N. de Boer recorded that in some districts the oeléëbalang revised the size of this reserve and at the same time fixed it in a more usual measure of length; thus in Sawang it was fixed from 1917 at only eight metres.

See Also

• H. N. A. Swart
• General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh (1943)
• Pacificatie van Atjeh
• Atjeh-oorlog
• Thirhōm idja
• Sawang
• Het recht op den grond in Atjeh (De Boer)

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

V.I.B.E.M. wood exploitation company established at Sinabang (Simeuloeë) on large and luxurious scale.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 57.

Source

De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 1: Sumatra, Algemeene Hoofdstukken, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen, Aflevering X (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), Voorbericht (dated “WELTEVREDEN, Februari 1917”) and Hoofdstuk III, pp. 64–65.

Atjeh up to date (Statistical and Administrative Compilation, c. 1914). Archival reference DLP-10. Fragmentary OCR extraction containing financial projections and colonial budget tables for 1917.

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.

Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 57.