The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-10
THE DUTCH IN SUMATRA
FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS HOLLAND
HAS BEEN ENGAGED IN WAR.
The Dutch Statesmen Haven't Yet
Realized That John Ball sold Them
a Territorial Gold Brick.

The longest war of the century is now
being fought and It's dollars to doughnuts
YOU have never heard of it. You may have
noticed an occasional cabiegram tucked
away in some odd corner of your newspa-
per about a fight between Dutch troops and
natives in sumatra, but you have merely
glanced at 1t and continued your search for
more interesting news. And yet there is
war in the Dutch East Indies which has
been carried on with typical Dutch delibera-
ton for twenty-five years. and Will probab-
" outltve the country It hasn't created
much or a stir Even the powers have ig-
norad it.
It's a curious sort of struggle. this fight
for the possession Of Sumatra. 1t is typical
OF a phlegmatic race, which Washington
Irving has so humorousIy sketched in his
''Knickerbocker History of New York" 1t
Is such war as we laugh al when we wit
ness it across the footlights in opera bouffe.
The Achinese are dark skinned. tall and
hardy race, and occupy the northern end OF
the island of Sumartra, where the cigar
wrappers are supposed to come from They
consider that they have perfect right to
occupy their native country, in spite of
treaties made without their consent. and
what is more, for a quarter OF century
they have shown themselves quite capable
OF enforcing that right. In 1872 Great Brit
ain palmed off Sumatra on the Dutch in
exchange for certain other East Indian
possessions, and it has taken the Hollanders
twenty-five years to get it through their
heads that John Bull had sold them gold
brick
A CHEERFUL ILLUSION.
The Dutch fondly imagined. when they
came into the ownership of the new terri
tory. that all they had TO do was to step
ashore and take possession. That was twen-
ty-five years ago, and they are still step
ping ashore-and staying there for the most
part. The fever fiend has no terrors for the
natives, but proceeds to exterminate the
troops sent from Holland with a merciless
hand. 1t is a fact that in one campaign
recently seventy out of one hundred of the
Dutch soldiers were killed by the climate
before they could engage in battle. These
twenty-five years of warfare have cost the
Dutch, excluding the untold loss in human
lives a heavy deficit in their colonial budg
ct every year. the humiliation of having to
abandon all hope of expanding their colonial
possessions in the East Indies, and a loss of
prestige that has made their name laugh
ing stock in the East.
Some day they will wake up to the fact
that the country is being drained of its
military and it's resources. The war has
cost 100000 gulden a year. or nearly $10,
100000. The Dutch mind, however, moves
slowly, and it may take several years more
to convince the Hollanders, between sips of
schiedam and puffs at their long pipes, that
something must be done in the matter.
When it was admitted by the slow going
Mynheers, after score of years of unsuc-
cessful warfare, that the troops of the
Netherlands were of little use in campaign
ing against the islanders, they tried to
starve them into submission by establishing
a blockade. This brilliant coup, however,
didn't work. The natives simply retired to
their jungles, and left it to the climate to
carry on the warfare for them. 1t proved
to be a most obliging climate, and before
the Dutch troops realized just what foe they
had to contend with there were very few
Dutch troops left to realize anything.
The Hollanders may be slow in confront
ing an emergency, and very often arrive at
a conclusion only to discover that the emer-
gency no longer exists; but they are
shrewd enough to look out for number one
That is an individual trait. So, while the
high dignitaries in the court at The Hague
are pottering about and sagely discussing
means of ending the war, they realize that
for political purposes the war is a good
thing that ought to be pushed along.
If q military man is inuscreet enough to
offend the party in power in the Neither
lands, he is shipped off to Achin, where, if
he escapes death at the hands of the ma
tives, he is sure to be carried off by the
climate. Another way in which the long
war is found useful, at least to those who
stay at home, IS that q constant stream of
supplies is necessary for carrying it on, and
many thus have an opportunity to get rich
at the expense of the government
The Dutch smoke the longest pipes, in
dulge in the longest deliberations, so why
shouldn't they carry on the longest war?
1t is their prerogative.