Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/23

XIV the War-party, and the claims which his friend pressed upon him began to be burdensome.

His secret opposition to Dutch rule thus changed to open hostility, but since the real purport of his actions had long been as obvious as the day, we cannot speak—except in a highly specialized sense—of Uma's "defection".

The Uma episode, however melancholy in itself, indirectly exercised a healthy influence upon the management of Achehnese affairs. Its termination opened all eyes to the need of vigorous action if one did not wish to abandon altogether the subjugation of Acheh. In 1896, the war against the Achehnese, which had been allowed to be suspended since 1881 without any real resultant gain, was resumed. Above all since Governor in 1898 took the direction of affairs everything has been methodically done to make the necessary end, once and for all, of this insurrection.

The enemy, by nature more warlike and from of old more devoted to war than any race in the neighbouring islands, was by this time far better equipped than at the outset of the Dutch invasion of Acheh. He had a superfluity of arms and munitions; he possessed a better knowledge of the tactics of European troops and the difficulties that they had to overcome; and he had, during the concentration-time, formed no high estimate of his foe's intelligence. Thus then his self-confidence stood higher than ever.

Whenever the Dutch troops encountered the Achehnese in the open field the die was soon cast; these latter could not—owing to lack of unity and organization—keep in the field anything like a military force for long. On the other hand the Achehnese have an advantage in guerilla warfare which makes their subjugation a gigantic task and through which the combatant numbers at their foe’s disposal are of even less avail than his superior strategy and organization. Between the populated districts the Achehnese finds sometimes jungles and sometimes swamps in which he can conceal himself; from the central highlands of North Sumatra where the Gayōs and Alassers live, a huge ring of forest separates him. In ordinary times he makes clearings for pepper and rice fields in the jungle; in time of need such clearings offer themselves as excellent hiding-places over which bands can scatter themselves. For gampong-dwellers who do not wish to submit, the abandonment of their habitations is thereby rendered less distressing; they settle in