Volledige werken. Deel 13. Brieven en dokumenten uit de jaren 1868-1869

[8 augustus 1868
Beoordeling Max Havelaar in The Athenaeum]

8 augustus 1868

Ongesigneerde beoordeling van de engelse Max-Havelaarvertaling in The Athenaeum, blz. 171-172. (U.B. Leiden; fotokopie M.M.)

which winds about the equator: het is merkwaardig in dit engelse artikel de beroemde zin uit het slot van de Max Havelaar (V.W. I, blz. 294) aangehaald te zien als was het een algemeen bekende uitdrukking: as the favourable phrase runs.

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New novels.

Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company.

By Multatuli. Translated from the Original Manuscript by Baron Alphonse Nahuijs. (Edinburgh, Edmonston & Douglas.)

The Dutch have, no doubt, a number of valuable possessions in the East Indies, ‘that magnificent empire of Insulind, which winds about the equator like a garland of emeralds,’ as the favourite phrase runs; and the rest of the world hears so little and, what is more, cares so little about what is actually taking place, that it generally assumes tranquillity and prosperity there go hand in hand, and that the Dutch, a quiet, shrewd, peace-loving people, do know better than any other how to make colonies a source of direct profit rather than a dead loss to the mother-country. But on closer examination this pleasing assumption proves far from true. The Dutch, so far from avoiding the mistakes which the English, Spaniards, French and other nations have made in dealing with distant possessions, have reproduced them in even an exaggerated form, and do not seem to have learnt anything since those days when by their ultra-protectionist commercial policy and their wish to retain unjust monopolies they rendered themselves odious to the rest of the world. That the bulk of the Dutch nation does not know what is actually going on in their East-Indian possessions, we can well believe. The subject is far too complicated for any ordinary man to master, even if he has the wish and application to do so. But the difficulty is much increased by the fact that the Indian officials, desiring to make things look pleasant, do not, or rather are not allowed to furnish truthful written reports. They may make any number of verbal communications to proper quarters about the extortions, cruelties, and crimes of the native chiefs: but woe to the official who dares to put all this on paper. His doom is sealed: a mere dismissal from office, without pension, after spending the best part of his life in the sultry regions of the tropics, being the least punishment that awaits him. It is a fearful alternative that here presents itself.

Such, indeed, is the drift of ‘Max Havelaar’, the book placed at the head of our notice. It professes to be a novel, but a novel founded on facts, the author of which, we are told in the Preface, has boldly asked the Dutch Government to prove the substance of it to be false, and at the International Congress for the Promotion of Science at

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Amsterdam challenged his countrymen to refute him. But up to this moment no champion has come forward to disprove what is here asserted and hinted at; on the contrary, Mr. Veth, the well-known orientalist at Leyden, who made a special study of Indian matters, declared that the author understates rather than overstates the truth, and quoted Vitalis and others who had published accounts of scenes and facts much more shocking than those depicted in ‘Max Havelaar’.

The author wrote the book under the pseudonym of Multatuli; but his real name, Eduard D. Dekker, formerly Assistant-Resident of the Dutch Governmnt of Java, at once became known; and the hero of the novel may be said to be an idealized portrait of the author himself. Max Havelaar then, a man of superior acquirements, finds himself appointed to a district in Java as Assistant-Resident, or Sub-Governor, and the first thing on his assumption of office is to convoke the native chiefs, by whose aid the machinery of government in the Dutch Indian dependencies is kept going, as well as the European official placed under his authority. He tells them that he is resolved to do his best to promote the prosperity of the impoverished district over which his jurisdiction extends, but that he expects the Regent, the highest native functionary, as well as the other native chiefs, will also do their duty, and not by cruel extortions drive the population away, and render the extension of cultivation a matter of impossibility. Fully aware of the existing abuses, and conscious that the system cannot be overthrown by the efforts of a single combatant, he endeavours to win over the Regent and others by telling them that he will let bygones be bygones, will not be too hard with them at first, but, at the same time, will not tolerate injustice in any shape. Havelaar soon perceives that his conciliatory policy is of no avail. The Regent's court has a large number of hangers-on, who commit all sorts of extortion and cruelties towards the natives. In the depth of night the boldest of the injured parties steal to Havelaar's house, and beseech him to protect them from the tyranny of their countrymen. But he finds it difficult to do anything for them. When he inquires officially into the matter the complainants, bearing in mind the punishments awaiting them from the hands of their native rulers for daring to prefer charges against them, revoke everything they have said, and offer the most humble and abject apologies. The Assis-

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tant-Resident goes home, disgusted with their cowardly behaviour, and the poor complainants are now subjected to all sorts of cruelties and tortures, if indeed they escape with their lives.

Havelaar soon discovers from papers left behind that his predecessor in office has also been a man resolved to do his duty, but that he died suddenly. How he died is known to his widow, who lives near Havelaar's premises, and fearing that the fate which befell her husband may also befall his successor, she closely watches and questions every native who comes to the Assistant-Resident's house. At first Havelaar attributes this to sheer inquisitiveness on her part, until she tells him plainly that it is done for his own and his family's protection; in fact, that she fears poison may be administered. Of course life under such circumstances is unbearable; and Havelaar, fully believing that the Head Government, when made aware of the real state of the district, will support him in remedying the evil, puts the whole case on record, and transmits it to the Resident, who for years had furnished the stereotyped statement that everything in the district is flourishing and progressing as rapidly as can be expected. The latter is much annoyed about this report, and desires Havelaar to withdraw it; but the Assistant-Resident is resolved to stand or fall by it. The consequence of this obstinacy is, that he is dismissed, and that all attempts to obtain an interview with the Governor-General for the purpose of justifying his conduct prove abortive. Havelaar goes to the wall, and the poor natives continue to be subjected to the same tyranny as they have always been liable to under Dutch rule.

In order to bring out the views entertained by a section of the commercial world in Holland itself about the subject, the author introduces a Mr. Drystubble, a rich coffee-broker and a great egotist, who is supposed to be editing the book and commenting upon the facts and opinions advanced. Drystubble is a mean, contemptible fellow, drawn by a masterly hand, who, we trust, may not be the type of a very large section of the Dutch nation. The book is written with considerable dash, and by a man who knows his subject thoroughly. It will naturally provoke a good deal of discussion, as containing charges of a most compromising nature against the administration of the Dutch Indian possessions, - not made, be it remembered, by a foreigner jealous of Holland's prosperity, but by a Dutchman to the backbone, anxious to remove what he considers foul blots from the national escutcheon.