Conrad Theodor "Coen" van Deventer (29 September 1857, in

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after Ro ...

– 27 September 1915, in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital ...

) was a Dutch lawyer, an author about the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, whic ...

and a member of parliament of the Netherlands. He became known as the spokesman of the

Dutch Ethical Policy The Dutch Ethical Policy ( nl, Ethische Politiek) was the official policy of the colonial government of the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) during the four decades from 1901 until the Japanese occupation of 1942. In 1901, the Dutch Q ...

Movement. He lived at Surinamestraat 20, The Hague (1903–1915), former residence of John Ricus Couperus, his son writer

Louis Couperus Louis Marie-Anne Couperus (10 June 1863 – 16 July 1923) was a Dutch novelist and poet. His oeuvre contains a wide variety of genres: lyric poetry, psychological and historical novels, novellas, short stories, fairy tales, feuilletons and sk ...

and the rest of his family (1884–1902).

Biography

Early career

Van Deventer was a son of Christiaan Julius van Deventer and Anne Marie Busken Huet. His uncle was the writer Conrad Busken Huet. He married Elisabeth Maria Louise Maas; they had no children. Van Deventer attended the H.B.S. in

Deventer Deventer (; Sallands: ) is a city and municipality in the Salland historical region of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands. In 2020, Deventer had a population of 100,913. The city is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, ...

and studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of L ...

. He achieved his doctorate in September 1879 on the thesis: "Zijn naar de grondwet onze koloniën delen van het rijk" ("are, according to the constitution, our colonies part of the Dutch empire"). On 20 August 1880 he was made available to the

Governor-General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

of the

by the Ministry of Colonies to be appointed as civil service official. With his wife Van Deventer travelled in September 1880 to Batavia by

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

''Prins Hendrik''; he was appointed

court clerk A court clerk (British English: clerk to the court or clerk of the court ; American English: clerk of the court or clerk of court ) is an officer of the court whose responsibilities include maintaining records of a court, administer oaths to wit ...

at the Raad van Justitie (Council of Justice) at

Amboina Amboyna or amboina may refer to: * ''Amboyna'' (play), a play by John Dryden *Amboyna massacre, in 1623 in Indonesia * Amboina box turtle (''Cuora amboinensis''), of Asia * Amboina king parrot (''Alisterus amboinensis''), of Indonesia * ''Amboyn ...

in December 1880. As early as 1881 Van Deventer was already seen by the public as an authority in the case of the issue of the economic position of the Dutch East Indies in relation to

motherland A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethn ...

the Netherlands. In lectures held during meetings of the "Indisch Genootschap" ("Indies Institute") his opinion on this matter was presented as very important. In June 1882 Van Deventer was appointed court clerk at the "Landraden" (land boards) of Amboina,

Saparua Saparua is an island east of Ambon Island in the Indonesian province of Maluku; the island of Haruku lies between Saparua and Ambon. The main port is in the south at Kota Saparua. The island of Maolana is located near its southwestern side an ...

and Wahoo; he was also appointed auditeur militair (a legal position) at the

court-martial A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of mem ...

in Amboina. In March 1883 he was appointed member of the Council of Justice in

Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...

and that same year he wrote a series of articles in the '' Soerabaijasch Handelsblad'', under the title ''Gedichten van F.L. Hemkes'' (poetry by F.L. Hemkes; Frederik Leonardus Hemkes was a Dutch poet, who lived in South-Africa (1854–1887)). Van Deventer wrote in February 1884 an article in "Het Indisch Weekblad voor het Recht" (The Dutch Indies Journal of Law), called ''De Indische Militairen en het Koninklijke Besluit van 13 Oktober 1882 nummer 26'' (The military in the Dutch East Indies and the royal order of 13 October 1882), in which he discussed the trial of a Buginese soldier in front of a civil (police) court instead of a military one. In April 1885 Van Deventer quit his job as a member of the Council of Justice in Semarang and was appointed lawyer and attorney at this Council of Justice. In this period of his life Van Deventer was also active as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until 1 ...

in the

schutterij Schutterij () refers to a voluntary city guard or citizen militia in the medieval and early modern Netherlands, intended to protect the town or city from attack and act in case of revolt or fire. Their training grounds were often on open spaces w ...

. That same year, 1885, he quit his job at the Council of Justice and joined the legal practice of LLM B.R.W.A.

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or kn ...

Sloet van Hagensdorp and LLM M.H.C. van Oosterzee; he replaced mr. Van Oosterzee, who would return to the Netherlands.

Career as a private lawyer

Van Deventer worked as a private lawyer from 1885 to 1888. In May 1888 he took a leave for Europe and travelled with his wife by steamboat ''Prinses Amalia'' from Batavia to the Netherlands. Back in Europe he wrote a series of articles, called ''De Wagner-feesten te Bayreuth'' (the Wagner festivals in

Bayreuth Bayreuth (, ; bar, Bareid) is a town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtelgebirge Mountains. The town's roots date back to 1194. In the 21st century, it is the capital ...

), which he visited for the newspaper "De Locomotief"; in this period Van Deventer was a permanent employee of this newspaper. He returned to the Dutch Indies on 11 May 1889 by steamboat ''Sumatra''. He resumed his lawyers practice and also became commissioner of the

limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of ...

"Hȏtel du Pavillon". In September 1892 he was appointed acting member of the Committee of Directors of the Nederlands-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij ( Dutch East Indian Railway Company). In July 1893 Van Deventer was promoted to the military rank of

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a ...

at the Schutterij in Semarang. He left for a second short stay in Europe in May 1894 and was, after his return, appointed member of the supervisory committee of the HBS in Semarang. In the newspaper "Locomotief" he wrote an article called ''Samarangsche bazar – eigen hulp'' (Bazar of Samarang), in which he defended himself against accusations that the prospectus of this firm (Samarangsche bazar), made up by him, was not accurate. He left the Dutch East Indies (permanently) in April 1897 by steamboat ''Koningin-Regentes''; back in Europe he visited the Wagner festivals and wrote about "Wagneriana" in The Locomotief of 11 November and 16 December 1897. In 1898 Van Deventer wrote several articles about the coronation celebrations in the Netherlands, where queen Wilhelmina was crowned, in the "Locomotief". He also wrote a series of four articles, called "Het Wilhelmus als Nederlands Volkslied" (the

Wilhelmus "Wilhelmus van Nassouwe", usually known just as "Wilhelmus" ( nl, Het Wilhelmus, italic=no; ; English translation: "The William"), is the national anthem of both the Netherlands and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It dates back to at least ...

as the Dutch

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...

), for the Locomotief that year and gave in the Locomotief his perspective on the Zola trial.

Early political career

In 1899 Van Deventer wrote a very influential article, called "Een Ereschuld" (a debt of honour) in the Dutch magazine "De Gids". In this article Van Deventer stated that the Netherlands had a dept of honor of nearly 190 million gulden opposite the Dutch East Indies and had to pay for this dept of honor. When the Dutch East Indian budget was discussed in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ca ...

a lot of attention was paid to Van Deventer's article, although not all members agreed with the content of the article. Van Deventer was appointed member of the editorial board of "The Gids" as of 1 January 1901. Over the next years until his death he would write numerous articles in this magazine.Database Nederlandse Letteren
– Retrieved 2013-01-30 In June 1901 Van Deventer accepted his candidacy for the electoral association Schiedam (for the

Free-thinking Democratic League The Free-thinking Democratic League ( nl, Vrijzinnig Democratische Bond, VDB) was a progressive liberal political party in the Netherlands. Established in 1901, it played a relatively large role in Dutch politics, supplying one Prime Minister, W ...

), located the

Schiedam Schiedam () is a city and municipality in the west of the Netherlands. It is located in the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, west of Rotterdam, east of Vlaardingen, and south of Delft. In the south the city is connected with the villag ...

, for the elections for the House of Representatives, but was not chosen. In lectures Van Deventer showed himself a supporter for the installation of a Dutch East Indian House of Representatives in the Dutch East Indies. In June 1902 he was appointed member of the "Algemeen Nederlands Verbond" (General Dutch Covenant) and wrote in het "Tijdschrift voor Nederlands-Indië" (Magazine for the Dutch East Indies) together with others, a concept colonial program; in this program the authors stated that the administrative power should lie more with the residents of the Dutch East Indies and that the government of the Netherlands should limit its interference to general government principles only. It seems contradictory that he also signed the telegram, send to general J. B. van Heutsz, in which he was complemented with the submission of Panglima Polim (a local leader), which was achieved by military force, in

Aceh Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. Granted a spe ...

. Van Deventer became a member of the board of the

Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies ( nl, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, lit = Royal Institute for the Linguistics, Geography and Ethnology, abbreviated: KITLV) at Leiden was founded ...

(1903) and that same year attended the meeting in London of the " Institut Colonial International". In September 1904 he was appointed knight in the

Order of the Netherlands Lion The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands ( nl, De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw, french: L'Ordre du Lion Néerlandais) is a Dutch order of chivalry founded by King William I of the Netherlands on ...

. He kept writing articles in different magazines, other than The Gids; for instance he published a series of four articles in the Soerabaijasch Handelsblad in December 1904, called "Over de suikercultuur- en suikerindustrie" (about the sugar industry). On 19 September 1905 Van Deventer was elected as a Free-thinking Democratic member of the House of Representatives for the constituency Amsterdam IXParlementair Documentatie Centrum
– Retrieved 2013-01-30 and as such he emphasized his three focus points regarding Dutch East Indian policy: education, irrigation and emigration. He was also a promoter of the so-called

but at the same time said in a speech given in the House of Representatives on 16 November 1905, that if persuasion did not work it would be inevitable to use military force. In a series of articles in the "Soerabajasch Handelsblad" in August 1908 called "Insulinde's toekomst" (the future of the Dutch East Indies) he wrote about the importance of eductation and the creation of new jobs for natives on higher management levels. Van Deventer was not reelected and left the House of Representatives on 21 September 1909.Parlementair Documentatie Centrum
– Retrieved 2013-01-30

Later political career

Van Deventer was elected to be a member of parliament again on 19 September 1911, when he was appointed member of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

by the

States of Friesland The States of Friesland were the sovereign body that governed the province of Friesland under the Dutch Republic. They were formed in 1580 after the former Lordship of Frisia (a part of the Habsburg Netherlands) acceded to the Union of Utrecht ...

. In this period he was also appointed as member of the Max Havelaar Foundation; this foundation was named after the famous book, written by

Multatuli Eduard Douwes Dekker (2 March 182019 February 1887), better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin ''multa tulī'', "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer best known for his satirical novel '' Max Havelaar'' (1860), which denounced the ...

, and the aim of the foundation was the material and spiritual upliftment of the natives in the Dutch East Indies. In February 1912 Van Deventer made, as a member of the Senate, a journey of several months to the Dutch East Indies. He visited almost all islands, including but not limited to

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent is ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

Celebes Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu ...

and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

. He remained a Senate member until 16 September 1913, when he was reelected as a member of the House of Representatives for the constituency

Assen Assen () is a municipality and a city in the northeastern Netherlands, and is the capital of the province of Drenthe. It received city rights in 1809. Assen is known for TT Circuit Assen, the motorcycle racing circuit, where on the last Su ...

. He kept this position until his death, on 27 September 1915. In June 1914 he was appointed official delegate of the Netherlands at the International Opium Conference held in

. In 1913 he founded the

Kartini ''Raden Adjeng'' Kartini (21 April 1879 – 17 September 1904), also known as '' Raden Ayu'' Kartini, was a prominent Indonesian activist who advocated for women's rights and female education. She was born into an aristocratic Javanese f ...

Foundation in order to be able to establish girl schools in the Dutch East Indies. In September 1915 Van Deventer became seriously ill (he suffered from

peritonitis Peritonitis is inflammation of the localized or generalized peritoneum, the lining of the inner wall of the abdomen and cover of the abdominal organs. Symptoms may include severe pain, swelling of the abdomen, fever, or weight loss. One part or ...

) and was nursed at the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, an ...

hospital in The Hague. He died at the age of 57 on 27 September 1915 and his body was cremated at Westerveld (

Driehuis Driehuis is a village in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Velsen, and lies about 8 km north of Haarlem. History It was first mentioned in 1680 as Drie Huysen, and means "three houses". Driehuizen dev ...

). File:Advertentie van Deventer.jpg, Advertisement in the "Locomotief", in which Van Deventer announces his departure for Europe in 1897 File:Advertentie Locomotief.jpg, Advertisement in which Van Deventer is named as a permanent employee of the Locomotief

Works

Summary

For the most part Van Deventer wrote about Dutch East Indian finance, the rights of the native officials and their education and about the sugar industry. When he was active as a journalist for the "Locomotief" he was particularly interested in

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

and the Wagner Festival. As he was a member of the board of directors of the magazine "De Gids" most of his later articles were published there.'Mr. C. Th. van Deventer'
in the

Algemeen Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ''NRC Handelsblad'' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. It is generally accepted as a newspaper of record in the Netherlands. History ''NRC Handelsblad'' was first published on 1 ...

, 12 May 1905 – Retrieved 2013-01-30

In "The Gids"

:1899. ''Een eereschuld'' :1900. ''De eereschuld in het parlement'', ''Drie boeken over Indië'', with Herman Dirk van Broekhuizen and J.D. Baron van Wassenaar van Rosande, ''Zuid-Afrika'', :1901. ''Uit Multatuli's dienstjaren'', ''Indische decentralisatie-plannen'' :1902. ''Een bemiddelingsvoorstel'', '' I.D. Fransen van de Putte, ter nagedachtenis'', ''Indië en de democratie'', ''Parlementaire kroniek'', ''Aanteekeningen en opmerkingen'', :1903. ''Parlementaire kroniek'' (9 parts), :1904. ''Koloniale hervorming?'', ''Bibliographie'' (2 parts), ''Parlementaire kroniek'' :1905. ''Rechtshervorming in Indië'', ''Bibliografie'' :1906. ''Bibliografie'', ''Atjeh'' :1908. ''Insulinde's toekomst'', ''Indische feiten en cijfers'' :1909. ''Verandering?'', ''Amerika in Azië'', together with J.N. van Hall, Johan de Meester and R.P.J. Tutein Nolthenius: ''Bibliographie'' :1910. ''Insulinde in het parlement'', ''Hooger onderwijs voor Nederlandsch-Indië'', together with Johan de Meester and Carel Scharten: ''Bibliographie'', together with J.N. van Hall, Johan de Meester and Johanna Westerdijk: ''Bibliographie'', together with J.N. van Hall and Carel Scharten: ''Bibliographie'', ''Havelaar-voorspel'', ''Uit Multatuli's Dienstjaren'', ''Insulinde te Brussel'', ''Multatuli aan den koning'', :1911. ''Van west en oost'', ''Kartini'', ''De oplossing der islâm-quaestie in Nederlandsch-Indië'', ''Aanteekeningen en opmerkingen'' :1913. ''Giftvrij lichtgas'', ''Aanteekeningen en opmerkingen'', ''De ijs-steen'' :1914. ''Het pijnlijke kwartier'', ''Naar den Indischen schoolvrede'', :1915. ''Indië na den oorlog'' :1922. (posthumously) ''Over de getuigstukken voor de dubbele storm'', ''De dubbele storm. Een verhaal van staatkundige beroering''

In "Neerlandia"

:1900. ''Christiaan de Wet'', ''Oost-en-West, Een Stem uit Java'' :1902. ''Een belangrijk besluit.'' :1903. ''Afdeelingen’, Afdeeling 's-Gravenhage'', together with H.D.H. Bosboom, P.J. de Kanter, H. Kern, H.J. Kiewiet de Jonge, J.M. Pijnacker Hordijk and O. van der Wijck: ''Twee adressen.'' :1906. ''Noord-Nederland., Verslag over de Liederenavonden voor het Volk in Den Haag (Winterseizoen 1905–1906)''

References

External links

Van Deventer on the Encyclopedie Britannica

Mr. C.Th. van Deventer
at the ''Parlement & Politiek'' website
Van Deventer on the Historical Website of the Biographic Dictionary of the Netherlands
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deventer, Conrad Theodor 1857 births 1915 deaths Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Members of the Senate (Netherlands) 19th-century Dutch lawyers Dutch journalists 19th-century Dutch military personnel People from Dordrecht 19th-century Dutch East Indies people Leiden University alumni Knights of the Order of the Netherlands Lion 20th-century Dutch East Indies people