Multatuli.online

[10 februari 1868
Beoordeling in de Daily News]

10 februari 1868

Beoordeling van de engelse Max Havelaarvertaling in The Daily News. (British Museum, London; fotokopie M.M.)

Holland is no longer either the dreaded foe, or the truest friend of England. Our jealousy of the naval prowess of the Dutch has died out; our dislike of their energetic competition in the world of commerce has ceased to have a cause. The time has passed away when the champions of popular rights looked to Holland for a splendid example of popular government, and when the adversaries of hereditary rulers beheld in Dutch statesmen, holding their offices in virtue of the votes of their fellow-citizens, the models of national chiefs. During several years the history of that country has appeared to be as tranquil as one of its canals. Nothing has occurred to excite the interest of neighbouring nations, save the tidings of a disastrous inundation, or the outbreak of a pestilence among cattle. Yet there has not been peace within its borders. Ministries have been suddenly changed, and the Parliament has been unexpectedly dissolved. The Liberal party has had several unwonted checks; the Conservatives have obtained exceptional victories. To the world at large these incidents have been regarded with indifference. Unless there be some principle at stake whereof the interest is universal and the triumph or defeat will be general, not local in effect, it is of little consequence how often, in a constitutional country, a new ministry is formed or an appeal is made to the people. Holland has this in common with its neighbours, that its inhabitants are threatened with the consequences of that clerical reaction against liberty of conscience and secular education which is creating dissensions in other countries, and is not without vigorous advocates among ourselves. But the real subject of contention which excites the Dutch is one of still wider import, for it affects the welfare not of themselves alone, but of thirty millions of Orientals, and it is a subject in which the whole world has an interest, because it raises in a new form all those issues which led to the abolition of slavery in our own colonies and in the United States. Now that this momentous problem is under discussion in Holland, the progress of affairs in that country will be scrutinised with interest by every lover of freedom.

As in America the fact of slavery being a curse was not fully realised till the publication of ‘Uncle Tom's Cabin’, so in Holland the public remained in ignorance of the iniquities wrought in their Indian possessions till eight years ago, when a work entitled ‘Max Havelaar’ was placed within their reach. It is a novel in form, but in reality a political pamphlet. The revelations contained in it startled the country, and have ever since formed the ground for contention in the Legislature. No official contradiction has been even attempted to be made to the catalogue of ghastly facts which its author has collected. Others who were equally well informed, but far less courageous than its author, Mr. Dowes Dekker, have been constrained to admit that he has understated the case. The authorities, and those to whom the maintenance of abuses is synonymous with the support of the constituted authorities, have done their best to persecute the man who revealed the plague spot in their system. He has suffered pecuniary loss owing to the doors of all employments for which he is qualified having been closed against him, and he has been unsparingly reviled for the double offence of being so unpatriotic as to denounce the blunders of his own government, and so eccentric as to demand justice for the millions in Dutch India who are the subjects of the King of Holland. The British public can now form an opinion as to the merits of the case, because an English translation of this remarkable book has just been published. Although ‘Max Havelaar’ may seem less attractive to many who read nothing but novels than the morbid and silly stories which are in demand at cir-culating libraries, yet by other and more judicious readers it will be heartily welcomed. What concerns us now are the new facts contained in it; and these we shall briefly set forth.

The Dutch East Indies are governed by native chiefs, called Regents, to whom the Government pays salaries, and by Dutchmen called Residents, who are in communication with the home authorities or their delegates in the East. The natives acknowledge the Regents as their lawful masters, and obey their commands. The Residents are the masters of the Regents, and employ them as the agents for giving effect to their wishes. In Java, the most important of these colonies, the Regents have the power of compelling the native labourer to work in whatever way they think proper. They are paid a salary, but that is disproportionate to their expenses, and were it not that they have, in addition, a percentage on the products raised within their districts, as well as the arbitrary disposal of the labour and property of the people, they would be unable to live in the state suited to their rank. The pay of the Residents is also very small, but their incomes are swelled by premiums on the produce. What the native does naturally is to cultivate rice. This is to Java what the vine is to certain parts of France and Germany, the plant most easily grown, and from the culture of which the largest profit can be reaped. But the Dutch Government, caring nothing about the tiller of the soil, and thinking merely about its selfish interest, compels the native to grow such articles as coffee, sugar, indigo, or cinnamon. The wish of this Government is law to the Regent. He orders the people in subjection to his control to sow whatever crop is in request. We are assured that as a result of this, the poor Javanese is driven away from his rice fields, and that ‘famine is often the consequence of these ‘measures.’ We should be surprised if the case were otherwise. Against the tyranny of which he is the victim the poor labourer has no remedy. He dares not complain to the European Resident about the hardships inflicted upon him by the native Regent, or the Dutch Government supports the rights of the Regent over the natives, and the Regent would effectually punish anyone who rebelled against his authority. Sometimes matters become desperate, and the wretched natives die so fast that inquiry is made as to the cause. It is said that ‘a few years ago whole districts were depopulated by famine; mothers offered to sell their children for food; mothers ate their own children. But then the mother country interfered. In the halls of the Dutch Parliament complaints were made, and the then reigning Governor had to give orders that the extension of the so-called European market should no longer be pushed to the extremity of famine.’ It will be asked why do the European Residents permit the abuses to flourish unchecked? That they do so is not the fault of their instructions, for they are all obliged, before entering on the discharge of their duties, to take an oath ‘to protect the native population against extortion and tyranny.’ But in practice they are afraid to interfere, because they know that the result will be the diminution of the produce, the consequent displeasure of their superiors, and probable loss of their places. Hence the official reports are expected to contain the following phrase, which is a literal version of the original: - ‘Tranquillity remains tranquil.’

The publication of ‘Max Havelaar’ was equivalent to a sweeping contradiction of the official reports which the Home Government had accepted as truthful. That the system is what we have stated it to be appears certain. We cannot wonder, then, that the results should be so deplorable. It seems clear that the Javanese are slaves in reality, if not in name. The Liberals in Holland are justly indignant that the stigma of upholding so iniquitous a system should rest upon their country. They are met by the Conservatives with the answer that to preserve vested interests is a duty, and that to do justice to the natives of the Indian Archipelago would be to increase taxation at home. The Liberals say, give the peasant a plot of ground and let him till it as he pleases; make him feel that he is a free man, and, in the end, the country will be better cultivated, the people contented, and the revenue increased. The Conservatives are eloquent in their denunciation of the idleness of the native, and are convinced that were he not a slave to his present masters, he would fall a prey to the spoliation of other oppressors. In short, we have but to listen to the Dutch Conservatives in order to hear reiterated the cruel fallacies which slaveholders have always urged, and for the obstinate maintenance of which not a few slaveholders have been bitterly and righteously punished. At present the Conservative party is in power, and its colonial policy is triumphant. The monarch openly sides with the Conservatives. But the opposition is strong enough to render the ascendancy of the party of reaction and injustice very short-lived. The publication of ‘Max Havelaar’ in English will tend to excite sympathy between those who, reading it here, are shocked at its contents, and those who in Holland are labouring to apply the remedy. No Dutch statesman will lack admirers in this country should he strive to remove from his nation the reproach that in the Eastern Archipelago its Government gives practical support to the abominable doctrine that man may keep his fellow in bondage.