Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-02-19
HOW HOLLAND
GOVERNS The ORIENT.

1t is odd that no senate or congress
Investigation committee has perceived
the necessity of taking trip thru Java
the pearl of the Orient, and its sister
island, Sumatra. or at least thru such
parts of the latter island as are in con-
dition to be visited without fatal con-
sequences.
In these possessions Of Holland many
of the problems that face the United
States in the Philippines have been I'M
der process of methodical and cosy, if
not brilliant, solution for almost q CEN
fury.
For a century the Dutchman's burden
in Achin has amused itself by fiouting
his authority and also cutting his head
off, whenever possible, and smoking it
to be preserved. Every few months the
patient optimistic Hollander announces
to an Indifferent world that the last
fight has been fought, and that within
day or two thereafter the Dutcl,
troops will enter VIGOROUSLY into the
capital of the Achinese. But somehow
one never hears of that final victorious
arrival, and the suspicion is always in
the air that what percentage of the
Dutch troops does at last enter the
Achinese capital does so in the form
OF souvenirs of the occasion.
The Achinese sits in simple ease and
with cheerful readiness to do murder in
his country of Achin, which lies in the
northern end of Sumatra. When the
Dutch send troops out from Batavia
they face about the same proposition as
II they had to send troops thru wild
and mountainous country from New
York to Chicago, for that is about the
length of Sumatra.
Beyond the fact that the Achinese
are exceedingly Industrious in their ma
tional profession of killing persons who
invade them. little is known about
them. They do not encourage visits,
ana Achin is prominently d bourne
from which no traveller returns.
Consequently the most accurate and
reliable statistics that even the statis-
tic-mad Dutchman can produce about
this brother of our own Tagalogs is
that more than 10000 stout Dutch SOL
diers have departed this life and about
one hundred million stout Dutch dol
lars have done the same, in efforts to
make the Achinese ii good Dutchman.
And the net result is that the Ahinese
Is fdentically as free, murderous and
native as he was before the first Dutch-
man landed on Sumatra.
South of Achin are several millions
of kindly savages who are the result of
an ingenious mixture of the blood OF
Malays from the Malay peninsula.
Dyaks of Borneo ara
pa la ivt Il:
known as Battak, is highly successful
in its own way. Some of the tribes
have the fad of cannibalism; others
have chosen the Dutchman's square
face" and under the soothing influ-
ences of his gin am his money they
labor in the pepper and tobacco planta
tons and are model citizens according
TO their dim lights.
AS in the Philippines, the dattos or
native chiefs, have been, and are, the
most serious of the many factors in the
tangled problem of colonial empire.
The Dutchman has treated the datto
with placid and truly Dutch ponder
osity, sitting upon him in state, with
constant assurances that he is sitting
somewhere else entirely.
SO it IS that the Javanese is happy in
the conviction that his holy dattos or
kings still rule him. The emperor of
Surakarta still holds his gorgeous i'm
perial court in beautiful Surakarta,
whose landscape looks as II 1T We're
chiseled out of lapis lazuli and emerald
The twenty-one other kings AMI
princes and dattos have their grand
palaces and their dancers and their
ministers. Their people and taeir off,
cjai:. still crawl toward them on hands
ns,, knees.
SO careful is the placid Dutchman
not to hurt the feelings of his burden
that the Dutch resident who Is sta
toned in each of these twenty-five
provinces of Java is not even known
as governor, although he Is the great
boss. with all powers of king. In
stead, his title is that of elder brother
to the king OR datto
The Javanese prince is a holy per-
son. indeed to his subjects. They APP
proach him only with awed venera
ton, and his wish is sacred.
Almost all of the twenty-five native
rulers are immensely rich. Indeed, If
1t can be said that any human being
can have without stint whatever he de-
sires, be it what it may, 1t may be said
of these Javarese greatnesses, whose