Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/20

Rh on Great-Acheh must be curtailed, that the resistance in the Coast-states must be overcome by naval coercion alone, and finally that developments must be awaited and that time would reconcile the Achehnese to their Over-lords. In 1884 this "concentration-scheme" was taken up and a beginning was made by the construction of a "concentrated line" of forts stretching about the old seat of the Sultanate. A widespread opinion exists that the statesman who inaugurated this so-called scheme, besides being entirely unversed in Achehnese affairs, was cynical and sceptical and only sought for some temporary way of shelving the burden of the Achehnese question, and that Parliament followed him. I am not in a position to controvert this belief. Certainly no one ever rendered a greater service to the War-party in Acheh than the inventor of "concentration". The Achehnese were free, at whatever time and in whatever way suited them best and without heavy expenditure or loss, to harrass the line and the coast-stations, as often as they pleased; the troops within the line were as little able to prevent them as they were to punish them when the thing was done. In the presence of a quite harmless enemy within the country, the religious party and the energetic adventurers had a most desirable opportunity of establishing war-chests and, with them, imperia in imperio. There was no reason whatever why this most enjoyable state of affairs—for the Achehnese—should ever come to an end. Moreover all Acheh and its dependencies, including the headmen in nominal subjection to the Dutch Government, remained under the influence of the Government’s foes; and these latter everywhere derived more profit than injury from the presence of the Dutch forts in the country.

Coercive measures dealing with Achehnese trade and shipping failed to be effective not only because they were not pushed on with sufficient energy, but still more because it is always possible for an Achehnese to supply himself with his own limited requirements even without the aid of foreign trade, so long as he is left (as the "concentration scheme" left him) in undisturbed possession of the whole land.

No wonder then that no one with any knowledge of local conditions expected any good from this "scheme". A child could grasp that it offered either too much or too little. If one hoped to effect the subjugation of Acheh, it offered little help,—in fact none at all; if one only desired so much conquest as would permit of the Dutch flag flying over the village of the old Sultans, then the tenure of a very small