Author: Felix
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Postal service
In 1905, Chinese appreciation for Hoetink is evident from a booklet introducing the Chinese Postal Service that was compiled on his initiative in Medan. This service was mainly intended for Chinese coolies working in outlying plantations for whom it was impossible to send letters and money to China. The introduction to the Regulations of the…
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Tjong Yong Hian and the Chaochow Railway
When the Imperial Chinese Railway Administration was established, director-general Sheng Hsuan-huai was looking for Overseas Chinese to finance a railway line. Sheng summoned Zhang Pi-shih, one of the wealthiest overseas Chinese capitalists, on his way to Hong Kong, to discuss ways and means of raising shares. Zhang Pi-shih has established a commercial empire in Southeast…
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Thio Thiau Siat
Thio Thiau Siat or Zhang Bishi left his home in rural Tai-pu county, Kwangtung province, to seek his fortune in Southeast Asia when only seventeen. Sources disagree as to the exact social status of his family but he definitely experienced poverty in his youth. Determined to make his fortune in Southeast Asia, he was able…
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Opium
Turning now to the discussion of the opium crime on the East Coast, I must bring forward some arguments to highlight the importance of the question. According to the latest report of the opium directorate, the gross reception in the East coast region of Sumatra in the year 1918 was NLG 9,447,200 against NLG 8,680,408 in…
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Soengei Boeloe
The Central Hospital Soengei Boeloe was established before 1918 in the region Serdang and Deli on the East Coast of Sumatra. The owner was a rubber company NV Mij.tot exploitatie der Tjong A Fie landen. The plantation was situated 12 km north of TebingTinggi. Area 2105 ha. In 1938 the company produced 229,2 kg rubber.…
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Palm Oil in America
Palm Oil Although the African oil palm (Elaeis Guineensis) had grown in Indonesia since I848, it was not until 1910 that it was planted on a commercial scale, and then near the tobacco plantations of the East Coast and southern Atjeh. Although some trees are grown in Java, the bulk of Indonesian palm oil has…
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Americans in Deli
MODERN PLANTATION CROPS OF THE EAST COAST OF SUMATRA Thus far we have mentioned only those products of Sumatra which have been produced by the Sumatrans themselves, and imported into the United States for many years. These exports were hardly a hint of what the soil could produce under Western methods. Even the greatest yields…
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Chang Puching
Chang Puching (also called Tjong Hau Liong) was the Chinese Consul General Titular in Medan, born in May 1885 in Meixian. China. He was the eldest son of the late Major of the Chinese Tjong Yong Hian and Lady Tjie She. The late the famous Major of the Chinese in Medan, Tjong A Fie, who…
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Aanslagen op assistenten
Attacks on assistants in 1923Sumatra Post 18-09-1923 The Planter reports the following attacks. The 21st May 1.1 Rijn van Alkemade’s assistant at Gloegoer had shortened a Chinese field coolie because of threading tobacco leaves of insufficient length. On his way home by eleven, the assistant was attacked from behind by a conscious coolie and pulled…
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Riot in Mabar
22-09-1913 The riot in Mabar. (Deli Courant) In the reception room, bundles of sorted tobacco was cut open, the coolie, who had done the sorting, not satisfied with this judgment, got up and started screaming and swearing.Other coolies followed yelling, one of them rushed into the reception room and to the reception assistant Mr. O.…
Stories from Deli 