Stories from Deli

Java Bode 30-10-1896

Medan, October 1896.

Anyone who has not visited Medan for several years and now takes a walk in and around the town will be surprised by the expansion, especially when they reach Polonia. The houses that were under construction, which I mentioned in a previous letter, are now nearly all completed or close to completion, forming a new quarter that is quite a pleasant place to live. One might think that the value of rental properties in the town itself would decrease, but the opposite is true; prices remain high. For a house in which a family from Java feels they must make do, the price is about 100 guilders or more, asked and received without hesitation. Moreover, every available space in the town is being filled with one or more houses, so we are packed together like sardines. Only a few large houses with equally large gardens provide a more favorable exception. The houses are typically made of wood on stone foundations and roofed with tiles; thatch as roofing material for houses is increasingly falling out of use and will likely disappear entirely, now that it has been decreed that it can no longer be used for residential buildings within the municipality.

Medan, thus further developed, will easily show the former resident that the town is progressing rapidly. The Medan Hotel alone is a striking testimony to this. In recent years, both wings of the hotel have been completely renovated and modernized, and soon work will begin on constructing a new main building where the old one still stands. This main building will be significantly expanded, confirming the hotel’s reputation as the best and finest here; meanwhile, the two other hotels in town continue to exist in a more or less sluggish manner.

Another sign of Medan’s progress is certainly not the increasing number of higher government officials of the BB corps stationed here. Instead of seeing it grow, we see it shrinking so much that it is hard to understand how the number of officials can be considered sufficient. It seems that Batavia is not yet convinced that the East Coast of Sumatra is becoming increasingly important and that Medan, as its center, deserves all the attention. The fact that our number of officials is too small, and thus the police are not organized as they should be, became evident recently during a riot among coolies at the Deli-Toewa estate of the Deli Company.

On the 16th of this month, a disturbance broke out among the Chinese coolies at that estate because the men, who had all contributed a dollar to the head tandil for a makan besar (a large meal) he was supposed to provide, felt that the food given to them was insufficient. A coolie who felt the need to complain received a blow to the head from the head tandil, which did not go down well. The head tandil fled, and his house was plundered. A chest containing a significant amount of money was barely saved from the house. The arrival of an assistant controller, the lieutenant of the Chinese, and a few guards seemed to calm the situation, although the European staff of the estate spent several unpleasant hours, especially during the transport of the chest with the money, which the coolies would have preferred to divide among themselves. The number of guards had meanwhile grown to about twenty, which was fortunate because when it was time to make some necessary arrests, the riot reignited. The entire group of 600 men charged at the guards and the six Europeans, and it was only by giving the order to fire that they could be kept at a distance and eventually forced to retreat. However, they gathered in a nearby shed, rearming themselves with sticks and machetes, clearly showing that they were not deterred by the police’s actions. It must have been frustrating to see how little order and discipline existed among the guards. These men, who barely know how to hold a rifle properly, only have the uniform in common with truly useful police guards, and anyone who sees them loitering around Medan’s streets, hanging out at food and fruit stalls, can easily imagine the fiasco. Without aiming properly, they fired randomly, with the only result being the killing of two coolies and the wounding of about five more.

I am not suggesting that it would have been better if there had been more casualties, but I do believe that the decisive action of a well-organized police force, led by a competent official, might have made shooting entirely unnecessary. It is no wonder that such a small, disorganized group of guards, who have barely been trained to hold a rifle properly, cannot intimidate a group of 600 rampaging Chinese. Order was only restored when the acting controller, our secretary, arrived at the scene of the riot with 75 men from the garrison, under the command of a captain and a lieutenant. The troops stayed overnight and were able to leave the next day, leaving behind a small contingent for any further incidents. Meanwhile, the troublemakers, over a hundred in number, were calmly arrested and transported to Medan. The wounded coolies had already been taken to the Deli Company’s hospital, where one of them soon died from his injuries.

This incident clearly shows the inadequacy of our police force and highlights the irresponsibility of leaving a place like Medan without a controller for three months and assigning those duties to the secretary, who already has his hands full with his tasks in a district like ours. Currently, we lack a controller, and one of the two aspirants stationed here is in Batavia as a witness in a theft case, leaving the two officials in charge of the police both absent from Medan. If something had happened in or around the town, the resident would have had to intervene personally, supported by the few remaining guards. Medan needs two controllers or a controller and another official of rank exclusively as the head of the police. This is especially necessary, and this little riot could serve as a useful reminder, especially if we soon have to do without our garrison and are left with only a permanent detachment of about 50 men. As was demonstrated, Deli could unexpectedly face a situation where a horde of rampaging coolies (and we count them in the tens of thousands in Deli and Langkat) needs to be confronted with a well-organized police force or military. If our garrison is removed, a substantial expansion of the police force is urgently needed.

In such a scenario, the handling of an incident like the one at the Deli Toewa estate could be entrusted to a competent official with experience, and the matter would not need to be left to a young aspirant, who, by nature, cannot be expected to have the judgment and decisive action that one might expect from an official of some rank. And it is not just in situations like this riot that the inadequacy of the number and rank of officials stationed in Medan becomes apparent; it has repeatedly been the case that the public has suffered because newly appointed officials, fresh out of Delft, have been given duties they are not equipped to handle and have occasionally made blunders that should not have occurred. It must also be noted that the head of the estate was apparently not particularly well-informed about what was happening there. A more judicious response from the police could have prevented much of the trouble, according to eyewitnesses.

Despite such storms in a teacup, the world goes on, as evidenced by the latest tobacco prices received here via telegraph. Like the previous ones, the most recently announced prices are very favorable, and the average figures for several companies and private enterprises will rise due to the results obtained at the auctions held after the holiday. It seems that the reports received in Europe regarding this year’s harvest have positively influenced the favorable mood on the Amsterdam market. Nevertheless, this year’s harvest, although perhaps slightly smaller than usual, will undoubtedly make a good impression on the market, as the quality is generally highly praised.

The resident returned from his overland trip to Asahan and took the opportunity to inspect the overland route. Soon, His Excellency will visit the coffee plantations of Serdang. New plantations are still being established there, so the future looks increasingly promising for Serdang. The decision regarding the governorship of Aceh has finally been made with the appointment of Van Vliet. General Stemfoort, on his journey to Semarang, will visit his acquaintances in Deli, where he was a colonel about two years ago. In his honor, a reception will be held in the “White Society” during the usual reunion evening, giving the reunion an extra festive character. Besides this little celebration, another party will soon be held, also in the “White Society,” but of a more domestic nature, namely a farewell party offered by the administrators of the Deli Company to the head administrator on the occasion of his departure on leave to Europe.