Oct. 1913]. Korte Mededeelingen.
Een Voorlichter.
1046
echter eenig succes van verwachten, dan beginne uien onmiddellijk
met verbetering van Onderwijs en materieel
Hopen we, dat eerlang het Indische leger verrijkt moge worden met
een moderne schermschool en, dat de geweren met ha&ksche bajonetten
vervangen worden door die met inschuivende bajonetten. Wellicht dat
ook over eenige jaren op de bekende vraag van een Japaasch Regi
mentscommandant „Wat moet elk soldaat kennen?", de Indische soldaat
zal kunnen antwoorden: „Marcheeren, schieten enbajonetvechten
Onderstaand stukje werd aangetr offen in de Juli-aflevering van
„Journal of the United Service Institution. Een vertaling zou er wellicht
hier en daar het mooie aan ontnemen. Het behoort gelezen te worden
in de taal van den schrijver, om er naar behooren van te genieten.
3aDa'. The garden oj the East.
By Lieut. F. G. C. Campbell, 40th Pathans.
Having recently paid a fleeting visit to the Dutch East Indian
possessions, the following jottings from my diary may prove ot interest
to some of your readers. With more leisure these notes would have
been ampler, as the Dutch military officers and civil officials are most
courteous and stilling to assist one in every way.
The first thing which strikes a touring Britisher is that the local
Dutch representatives of a small but proud nation, have a great opi
nion of their method of government, and of their military system in
the East, which they consider greatly superior to ours. Further no
outsider can help observing the natural manner in which the Hollanders
intermix with the Javanese. They intermarry with them and treat them
as equals in every respect except that they close the doors of the Dutch
East Indian Civil Service to them. The class in India to which we
apply the term Eurasian is there styled Hollander. Throughout the
country it is evident that a very good understanding exists between
East and West, due no doubt in some degreo to the high intelligence
of the Javanese, coupled with an innate respect on their part for the
European. Perhaps, too, the fact that the Dutchman usually makes
a home of the island for all time has something to do with the good
feeling that exists between rulers and ruled.
The Dutch military officers are intelligent, welleducited gentlemen,
but I do not think it an unfair criticism to say that the knowledge
which they display is often more of a theoretical than of a practical
kind. At their military academy in Holland, where they pass, I under
stand, four years, they cease studying European languages and general
military history as soon as they elect for service in the East, and specialise
in East Indian, history, Malay aud Javanese. Thus they come out well
equipped with a knowledge oi' the country and people, ready to com-
