The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-08-31
THE DUTCH OUT OF HOLLAND.

The European civilizers of foreign ma
tons are meeting with setbacks. A few
days ago the French garrison of TimbuctoO
was waylaid in the course of promenade
il was taking On the banks of the Niger
and number of good Frenchmen were
done to death with knives and spears.
Now 1t is the Dutch who have been badly
man-handled in their colony of Java. 1t
is not surprising to hear that the news has
created widespread excitement Throughout
the Netherlands.
The scene of the conflict appears to have
been a small island off the coast Of Java
called Lembok. Between the Rajah of that
island and the Dutch authorities at Bata-
via differences arose; the Dutch sent q
force to bring the Rajah to his senses; he
set an ambuscade and killed so many of
the Dutchmen that The survivors made the
best of their way home. The Governor of
course called out moro troops and proposes
to make an example of the Rajah, which
he can undoubtedly do il the twenty-five
provinces into which Java is divided agree
to remain quiet while the castigation is
going on.
The colony Of Java consists of one long
island and over thousand small islands,
bits of the former broken off by seismic
force in the course of centuries. The total
area is about the same as that of Arkansas
and the population in 1891 was reckoned at
100000. OF these about $4,000 were
Dutch or other Europeans, nearly half
million were Chinese, Arabs or other ORR
entails and the remainder natives. The
Dutch. weak as they are numerically, have
lad fhn fEla
turtles, aud its produce, which has been a
Government monopoly. has been one of the
sources of the wealth of the Netherlands.
No portion OF the world is more fertile
than Java. With irrigation 1t produces
three crops of rice per year and its yield
of cotton. sugar, tobacco, indigo and trop-
ical fruits is prodgious.
1t is really marvellous how the Dutch
have maintained despotic empire In so
densely peOpled region. Sixty years ago
the Netherlands established what they
called culture SYSTEM" which requires
the natives to contribute so many days
work in each year to raising the staples
produced In the island. The people were
in fact reduced to slavery or peonage.
The island was divided into twenty-five
provinces, over each Of which Resident
was set with absolute power, su bject to
the supervision of the Governor-General in
Council. The Resident carried on bust
ness through native officials, called con-
trOllers, and as it seems that he has the
power of life and death in his hands his
orders are rarely disputed. In 1870, this
system WAS the subject of attack in the
mother country, and it was modified so
that the natives were exempted from con-
tributing forced labor on the sugar planta.
lions. But they were still required to
grow a certain quantity of coffee each
year, and that practice is in force to this
day.
1t goes without saying that such a sys-
TEN can only endure SO long as the Java
nese are Indifferent to political independ-
ence. As soon as they feel like asserting
themselves the Dutch will have trouble.
At the present time the whole Dutch army
in the colony only numbers $4,000 men,
half OF whom are natives.
Java is out of the line of modern travel.
None of the world-trotters ever wander so
far out of their way. Sailors and ship
owners used TO be familiar with the port
OF Angler, in the strait of Sunda, from
which sailing ships used TO be sigma led.
ahu "ncLe hoSu 1luib anu NaLer were
brought off from the shore; but in 1883
the eruption of Krakatoa and the earth
quake and water wave which followed
utterly wiped Angler from the face of the
earth, and ii is now a mere memory. The
whole OF the island is subject to convul-
sions with alternate up-iiftings and de-
pressions; it is evident that the continent
of which it was probably once the back
bone has not yet secured stable footing
on the coast upon which it resis