If leadership and anarchism are reconcilable notions, Mr Domela Nieuwenuis is a leader of Dutch anarchists. There was a time when, thanks to his eloquence and fanatic enthusiasm, he possessed a firm hold on the working classes, but with the growing organization of the Social Democratic Partyy, and the development of trade unions, it slipped out of his hands. The Dutch workman's practical mind realized that Parliamentary representation promised him a better chance of procuring the means to improve his lot than the Quixotic vagaries of the anarchist prophet. Of late years his voice was seldom heard, the public had almost forgotten that he was still among the living. It was like a resuscitation from the dead when, at Easter last, he addressed a meeting at Amsterdam. He appeared on the platform with protestant clergymen as his co-militants, a kind of allies he would probably have scored in the heyday of his success. The cause which united these preachers of such heterogeneous doctrines was disarmament. The meeting passed a resolution demanding from the Netherlands Government the immediate demobilization of the army and navy, and called on the working classes to add pressure to this demand by means of a general strike.
In itself this demonstration of a small group of muddle-headed idealists would not deserve special notice except as a symptom of human folly and irresponsibility. But I put the event on record because of a remarkable protest which it called forth from quite an unexpected quarter. A Javanese addressed an open letter to these preachers of demobilization to remind them of what would happen if the Dutch soldiers, at their bidding, were actually to lay down arms: On the same day a German force would march into Holland, and Japan, seeing the Dutch motherland in German hands, would grasp the opportunity of making a bid for the long-coveted islands and harbors of the Malay Archipelago. But the Dutch colonial army would certainly not shirk service. The conflict would be fought out in Java, and the Javanese would fulfil his duty to the motherland more faithfully than Mr Domela Nieuwenhuis and his Christian brethren exhort the Dutch workman to do. For the Javanese has an interest in the continuance of Dutch rule in Java. "The Japanese whom we see at work in our island is despised and hated among us. In Dutch schoolbooks it is commonly said that we hate the Chinese. But that is not so. We respect their temperance, their inductry, their intelligence. But we hate the arrogant and narrow minded Japanese. And that is wht we shall fight together with your army if it comes to the worse"
Strange and incredible debated! On one side free citizens of a free state, wishing to make their own country utterly powerless and an easy prey of German expansion, on the other a native of a subject tace teaching these weakness-mongers their patriotic duty, and ready to fight for the country which has subdued his people. His letter bears testimony to the justice and efficacy of Dutch rule in Java. During the last two decades much has been done for the improvement of education among the natives. The old practice of trusting to ignorance as the best means of keeping a subjugated people out of mischief has had to yield to the wiser policy of teaching them to see for themselves what are the advantages of European order and organization. Missionaries and Colonial officers cooperate in awakening in them a sense of responsibility for the welfare of their own country, which to no small degree depends on their industry and their willingness to support the Government in bettering their lot. This policy has, undoubtedly, its dangers. The native reclaimed from a state of primeval ignorance becomes, in the hands of astute agitators, a pliable instrument on which to play their seditious music. Supporters of the old regime have warned against this consequence of the new course, and thought their opposition justified by certain events which occurred in Java shortly before the outbreak of the war. A Dutchman, Mr Douwes Dekker, and a couple of Javanese intellectuals were banished from the Malay Archipelago for conducting an anti-Government agitation among the natives. Whether Mr Douwes Dekker was actuated bypurely ideal motives, by a genuine love of the Javanese and the unselfish wish of seeing Java restored to the aborigines, or by a base desire for self-advertisement, and to pay off old scores against the Government, is not for me to decide. But there is no doubt as to the honesty of his fellow-sufferers, misguided enthusiasts for the future of their island and their race. And the Dutch Government, satisfied with having shown its firm determination not to suffer any agitation of this nature, wisely relented and allowed them to return to their native country.
Mr Douwes Dekker was less fortunate: He put his apostolic zeal for the Asiatic's salvation at the disposal of the German agitation among the British-Indian natives, became an agent for the distribution of seditious pamphlets in the Straits Settlements, and fell into the hands of the police at Singapore, where he is still awaiting his sentence. His connection with the underground intrigues of the German moles will do him little credit with his countrymen, the less so as, a short while ago, telegrams from Batavia brought news of the arrest of a German individual, a certain Keil, who is charged with having conducted a dangerous agitation among the Javanese, with the purpose of stirring them to open revolt against the Dutch. The news was received with more surprise than alarm, surprise at the tardy discovery of these machinations, which appear to have been started even before the outbreak of the war. For alarm there was but little cause.