The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-08-10
THE COST OF A LITTLE 1MPE-
RIALTSM NOT FAR FROM THE
philippines

HI1lLLIII Ines.
One day last year | happened to be in
Southampton, watching transport la
den with British soldiers, leaving for
South Africa. AS she cleared the har-
Dor the transport passed Dutch Bata-
Wan steamer on board of which were
a number of Hollander soldiers, who,
with the warriors universal camarader-
ic cheered the khaki clad Englishman
until they were suddenly ordered be-
low by an excited young officer, whose
Boer sympathies were apparently much
! shocked by the unusual spectacle Of
Dutch soldiers cheering Englishmen.
| These fifty or sixty Dutch soldiers
were on their way to fight in the far
East, where Holland has waged war
necessarily for many generations. This
particular draft, of soldiers was booked
for the war in Achin. They We're part
of a constant chain of reliefs going 10
this Unsuitable minotaur, whose greed
of men and treasures demands SINH
lar draft by every weekly steamer from
Holland. 1t is a fact, little known,
especially in Holland, that every week
secs the departure Of half hundred
recruits for Achin-or Atjeb, as the
jfollanders call it; and so dreadful is
the reputation of this far-aWay land of
carnage that the Hollander peasant
has long since adopted the saying, AN
Achin soldier never comes back"
was further surprised to learn that
among Hollands many colonial wars,
which she has been carrying on for gem
erations in the East there is one which
has been waged without intermission
for over twenty-eight years, and whose
tales of bloodshed and mismanagem
careless administration and callous in
difference to results on the part of
those responsible, cause all her other
little wars to fade into the background.
It seemed an odd sort Of paradox that
the country allied by blood and sympa-
thy with the people warning against
Great Britain In South Africa should
be carrying on a similar war of con-
quest itself. Yet here is a COMPARE
lively uncivized and badly equipped
people fighting persistently and often
successfully against a European power.
The Achinese. whom the Dutch have
been vainly endeavorng to subdue for
so many years, inhabit the northern
and most accessible part Of Sumatna,
the large island lying to the west of
the East Indian Archipelago, due south
of Burma. the Philippine Islands being
situated to the east, with the island Of
Borneo between.
Operations were now carried on in the
interior Of the country by General Pei,
and later by General Karel van der
Heyden, who, by his Draconian mill
mo 90 ctIoancgfil II, no
ducng the interior tribes that the au-
thorities in Holland decided the coun-
try was ripe for pacifcation, and that
the military rule might be superseded
by civil government General Van
der Hayden was accordingly recalled,
and was received at home With much
acclamation. His successor. the first
civil governor, was appointed in the
person of Heer Van der Hoeven This
change, as might have been anticipated
was a hopeless failure, for the Achinese
the abandonment of the
stern military rule as sign of weak
ness, resumed their dreaded guerrilla
warfare. They ambushed and killed I
the Dutch in the interior, and the
reign of terror again ensued. Then the
Dutch seriously took In hand what they
are pleased to call war of conquest,
which is still going on, and which may
for generations to come.
A careful estimate obtained from |
statistics published from time to time |
by the Colonial Office at The Hague :
shows that from 10000 to 11,C00 Dutch |
soldiers and their native allies have |
lost their lives either in battle or from |
disease during the war. 1t has cost |
Holland up to the present some two |
hundred million guilders about SS5000,- |
)00) but this heavy burden falls en- !
tirely on the revenue Of the wealthy !
colony of Java, which yields Holland |
forty million guilders (about sic, 00000O |
4 year-more than enough to pay the
piper in Achin, and leave a handsome ;
surplus-Ralph D. Blumenfeld in Har- |
oer's Magazine.