Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, September 29, 1901, Page 18

Dutch Soldiers in Their East Indian Empire Frank G (Copyright, 1901, by Carpenter ) JIMAL Java Aug 217 Correspondence of The Bee ) -1 have come 1o Tiimal to tell vou some thing about the Dutch colonial army I in one of their hief garrison It vready includes 1.000 oldier and it be pdded until thi b omes one of the chief fortified places of the East Indies. It {8 situated six hours from the coast, about 2,000 feet above the ea and nature has bueilt natural fortifica tions about |t The camp les inoa plain everal mile wide, walled by mountatng which rise in blue gradeur until they are lost in fleecy white clouds. The place is a natural amphitheater walled by extinct volcanocs and roofed by the sky It Is eas illy reached by magnificent roads and the trunk line of rallway from Batavia to Hoerbayn also goes to it I have been much interested in the Duteh soldiers whom | have seen in different parts of Java. The Hollanders them magnificent fellows, tall, straight and well formed. They capecially well dressed wnd are gentlemen I have talked with them about the army and I find that there ire only 42,000 soldiers In the Dutch colo ninl empire of the East Indies and of these only 16,000 are Europeans. We have sev- eral times that many Americans in the I'hilippines and this notwithstanding the Phillppines have about one-fourth as many people The native population controlled by Holland 1s 34,000,000, It embra na tives of every varlety found In the far east There are savages as wild as the hill tribes of Mindoro and Mindanao and there are also half-eaucated farmers like our Fili- pinos of Panay and Luzon. The Dutch have more tribes to control than we have and they understand how to use thelr soldiers well that they need only one European to every 2,000 souls. It was through the kindoess of Lord Van Benthem van den Berg that T was admitted to this encampment, 1 came in a carriage behind a team of Sandalwood ponies from Bandong. The whole way was through a beautiful park lined with cottages of woven bamboo filled with little brown people of all ages and gexes. Now we went by a among are are finiched and are at the same time airy and clean Walls of this kind are nailed to studding which upholds roofs of gaivanized iron. The floor are of stone and the buildings are cool and comfortable Lach bullding s about thirty feer wide and perhaps 160 feet long. There is an alsle through the center in which the guns are stacked and on each le of this the beds of the soldiers Each bed has a good mattress, which are over is a rug of woven straw for coolness. The petty officers have rooms to themselves apart from the soldiers and the commis gloned ofMcers have houses as comfortable as anyone could possibly wish very Soldier Has 0 Sative Wife, General Otis and other of our officer have decldedly objected to the wives of our soldlers golng to the Philipplnes. Here in Java the men are encouraged to choose wives from among the natives I do not know that the arrangement is a permanent one, It 18 probably not when the men go back to Europe, but it holds good daring thelr stay her There i8 a quarter of the camp which is devoted to the wives of the soldlers. Here they sleep with their chil- dren and here are their quarters while the men are on duty, Many of the women live with their husbands in the barracks, but the children are always kept outside. The food for the women and soldiers is all cooked in the garrison kitchens, but the men must pay for the rations I went throuzn the kitchens and sampled the food The cooking Is done In great caldrons and it is served out at cost. I am told the expense of feeding a man or adult is less than cent a day, and that a child can have cnough rice and soup to last one it ive days for less than two cents. 1 spent some time in the women's quarters making photographs. The women were not at all averse to posing and they stepped out into the sun in front of the camera. They were all clad In Javanese costume Nearly all had children; many had babies at the breast or astride their hips 1 h Ar ry School. The Dutch officials take good care of the wives of the men and see that their chil e HALF-CASTE CHINESE GIRL market a mile long, where the women were squatting and selling, and we found Javanese houses almost to the very bar- racks of the soldiers How the Duteh Soldiers Live, I have recently been In the Philippines and have seen how our colonial soldlers ire quartered, Some of them are in tents, some In bamboo shacks and some in Fili- pino houses turned into barracks The Dutch have been experimenting for cen turics as to the best accommodations for their soldlers in this tropical climate and their methods can be copled In the Philips pines with profit, The bulldings of Tjimal consist of vast barracks made of woven bamboo, The bamboo cane I8 split Into strips when It Is green and flattened out, Each strip 18 shaved so that it is as wide as an ordipary lath and perhaps an eighth of an inch thick. Many of the strips are forty feet long. They are woven into great sheets, so big that they form the walls of the barracks They are rain tight when AND MALAY MOTHER. dren are educated. The boys are regularly irllled and taught military tactics, with a view to making non-commissioned officers of them when they grow up 1 attended one of the schools and found about fifty Httle yellow Javanese working away Each was in his bare feet and each wore a tur- ban, a jacket and sarong I heard them recite, and they impressed me with their intelligence. There was a plano in one end of the room, and 1 asked the natlve teacher if the boys could sing. He replied: “We will try and sce.” He then called attention and asked the lttle ones to sing the Dutch national hymn. They did so; not io words, but in the musical notes, singing do, re, me, fa, sol, etc., the teacher starting them with his ein, zwel, drel. Later on 1 saw the boys go through thelr gymnastics and drill. 1 think they are the equals of any of our own school ca- dets. The Duteh government b ing the soldiers lleves in keep- contented It spends a THERE IS A CHINESE SECTION IN EVERY TOWN great deal on amusements for them Heve at Tjimal there ls a soldiers’ club, called “The Canteen,” which would be a credit to any camp of the world. The club hous is a large one-story stone structure, which has cost $15,000 in gold. This represents a sum equal to three times that much at home. The ceilings of this building are twenty-five feet high. It has magnificent rooms looking out upon wide galleries up- held by white Grecian pillars. It has a theater with full stage machinery and a teautiful drop curtain with pictures upon it, sketched in by the officers and painted in oils by the men. The chandeliers are of aluminum and the floors are of marble. The Canteen has billiard rooms, reading rooms and card rooms, and the lawns and flower gardens about it are as beautiful as those of our millionaires on the Hud- son, In a Military Prison, During my stay here I have gone through the military prison. It is more comforta ble than Billbid, our penintentiary in Manila. It is made much the same way & the barracks, save that there is a great wall around it, and the entrances are carc fully guarded The prisoners are forced to work. 1 saw fifty of them making clothes or the army in one of the rooms, using American sewing machines In another department were two shoemakers and in others there were jewelers, carpen- ters and workers In iron. The prisoners are pald about 90 cents a week for their lnbor. They are well fed and well treated They have books to read from the prison Iibrary, and their wives are allowed to call upon them once every week, Dutch Native The Dutch and the natives seem to be on an equality in the army. They march to- gether in the same battallons, many bat- tallons consisting of two companies of Eu- ropean soldiers and two of natives, or more often one of Europeans and three of na- tives. The half-castes are on a footing cof perfect equality with the Europeans, but at least half the noncommissioned officers must be Europeans. All the higher officers come from Holland. They are fine fellows, well educated and well trained. Together with the officials, they form the aristocracy of the foreign colony and, as a rule, live In fine style There is a military academy near Batavia and the military clubs at Weltevreden would be considered fine in any European settlement, d I am told that the natives make very good soldiers, although there is a vast dif- ference In them, according to the tribes and the locality from which they come. The people of the island of Ambolna are especlally brave and there are now over 4,000 of them In the East Indian army. All forelgn residents are required to serve a certain number of days every month in the militia. The number of days decrcase with age, beginning with days A month and finally falling to fcur days. The Arill is from 4 p. m. to 6 p. m. It Is very but it makes every foreigner, whether he be English, American or Dutch, a soldler. score Soldiers Mix. seven severe This regulation is, I suppose, to make tha foreign population valuable in case of an uprising of the mnatives. The Dutch have had such rebellions in the past and al- though there is little danger of it in Java, in Sumatra and other places the foreigners must allve for such an emergency There is a tribe known as the Achinese in northwestern Sumatra which has been in rebellion for generations The Achinese have about 500,000 people and their country is about half as big as Ohio. They bhave always been noted for their hatred cof foreigners. They fought the English and the Portugese and they are still fighting the Dutch. It is estimated that more than 10,000 Dutch soldiers and natives have lost their lives in the war which is now going on with Achin and that that war has cost Holland something like $85,000,000 How o Re There are other parts of Sumatra which are very rebellious. I heard the other day how the Dutch resident of Palumbang frustrated a plot in which the native chiefs conspired to kill him and seize the government, The scheme was to set the city afire in a quarter where it would do little damage, with the expectation that the resident and soldiers would run to it During the burning the natives expected to capture the fort and kill the resident and his soldiers, including all the Euro peans. The resident, however, was pousted by one of his spies and did not go to the fire. Then the chiefs demanded an audience, ex- pecting to kill him when he came to it The resident consented, but the night be fore he powdered his face until it was a ghostly white and placed medicines beside his bed. He then called in some of the coaspirators and told them he was sick and that he could not possibly meet the appointment. He asked them to have the chiefs come to the palace instead on the following day. The chiefs then planned to start the rev- olution at the palace, but when they ar- rived they were admitted one by one and received at the point of rifles in the hands of the soldiers. The resident came out and ordered that they be put in prison There were just enough chiefs to fill all the cells except one, whereupon the resi- dent's major domo, a native of high rank, who had secretly been In the conspiracy sald: “There is one more cell, your excel- lency, who shall that be for?" “That is for you, you rascal,’”” was the emphatic reply. He thereupon gave a sign to the soldiers and they took the man to prison, Dutch and the Chinese, I have spent some time studying the Chinese question in Java. The island is full of celestials. It has about three times as many as we have in the Philippines and you find Chinese quarters in every town and In every city. The Chinese own prop erty to the amount of $35,000,000, They bhave some of the richest plantations of coftee and sugar and of recent years have leased out 30,000 acres of land. They own more than 600,000 acres of iand, which wa acquired years ago and would increase their holdings if the Dutch would allow them to buy. The Chinese hold about the same position here that they do in the Philippines. They are the middlemen of the country, the medium of communication between the na tives and foreigners. They go about the island and buy up the crops and they engage in every business furnishe considerable profit. The Chinese quarters are them by the Dutch officials. vides that they must live in such sections and prohibits them from doing outslde them without permission of the officlals. The other day the Standard Oil company at Batavia wanted to employ a Chinese as night watchman, but they could not do so until the government gave him permission to leave the Chinese quarter. In Buitenzorg the Chinese section 18 one of the best parts of the city, It is fully a mile long, and is lined with one-story buildings heavily roofed, Each building has a Chinese sign at its side, and the mer- chauts within are Chinese. It {8 the same in Bandong, Soerbaya and in every Javan ese city, Holland Protects the Natives. over which set for The law pro aside business The government restricts the Chinese to their own quarters in order to protect the natives, for the Chinese are much better business men than the Javanese. They are everywhere money lenders and money mak- ers. If Java was thrown open to them to day and the natives allowed to sell their lands they would polize the country ind enslave the poople, and it is only by careful restriction that they are allowed to remain here and do business. In a talk with one of the resident governors, a man who has many thousands of Chinese under hkim, I was told that it would not do at all to allow Chinese immigration without cer tain restrictions, and that in this man's opinion we had done right in excludin them from the Philippines. Here the Chi nese pay twice as much taxes as any on el and they are clogged in other wavs They are subject to police duty and must take their tnry s night watchmen on th road: The Chinese here intermarry with the natives., The seldom bring their wives with them, & 1 comm n sight is a China ONE OF THE JAVANESE. INFANTRY A NATIVE mau dressed in European clothes, with his queue tucked inside his riding along in a carriage beside a brown Javanese girl gorgeously dressed. They treat their wives well and are as fond of their half-caste vhildren as their ancestral fathers were fond of them Many Chinese marry half- caste girls and half-caste children everywhere in the Chinese quarters. Pawn Brokers of Java, coat, swarm Ther« are some businesses here which are monopolized by Chinese. Among the chief ones are the pawnbroking establishments which are found by the score in every na- tive city. They are licensed by the gov- (Continued on Eighth Page.)