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11 juni 1868
Volledige Werken. Deel 13. Brieven en dokumenten uit de jaren 1868-1869 (1980)
11 juni 1868
The Scotsman bevat op blz. 5 een beschouwing van vier kolommen naar aanleiding van de engelse Max Havelaar-vertaling. (University Library, St Andrews Scotland; brief met gegevens d.d. 2 april 1980, M.M.)
Het bleek niet mogelijk te zijn een fotokopie van deze krant te verkrijgen.
...the Dutch Government... is reproached with encouraging the growth of coffee and sugar at the expense of the cultivation of rice, whereby it is maintained that famines are occasioned: -
(quotation from Max Havelaar) ‘Famine? In Java, the rich and fertile, Famine? Yes, reader, a few years ago whole districts were depopulated by famine. Mothers offered to sell their children for food; mothers ate their own children.’
...(We) declare this passage a gross exaggeration...
Max... had decided in his own mind that the inhabitants were oppressed by the native chiefs... He is therefore always willing to listen to secret complaints...: -
(quotation from Max Havelaar) ‘And... what became of these poor plaintiffs...? He who could fly, fled. But not every one could fly. The man whose corpse floats down the river in the morning... he needs fly no more...
It is most reprehensible... to put forth... such statements... without a shadow of proof, or even of reasonable inference...
The book... has remarkable literary merits, and possesses the rare attributes of originality and genius, but is full of fallacie(s) and misrepresentations...
The numbers of police are so great, and their days of duty so wide apart and irregular, that collusion between a watchman and a criminal is nearly impossible... The proximity of the watch-houses renders it difficult for crime to escape detection, whilst aggressive espionage is altogether avoided...
the prosperity of the peasentry is now so great... that there are few corners of the earth where it can be rivalled.