Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 160, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1910 — PATERNALISM IN JAVA. [ARTICLE]

PATERNALISM IN JAVA.

Former Policy Wai to Dlsconrago I Foreign Travel la the Island. To the visiting American perhaps one of the most noticeable features about Java is the distinctly paternal character of the Dutch colonial administration, says Henry G. Bryant in the National Geographic Magazine. This was impressed on us on our first landing at Batavia, where we had to report directly to the chief of police to obtain permits to travel on the Island. Before these were granted, full answers had to be given as to our names, nationality, occupation, age and purpose in visiting Java. During our subsequent wanderings we were obliged to hold these permits in readiness for inspection by officials and at all times we felt that our movements were a matter of some interest to the authorities. We are not surprised, therefore, to learn that the uniform policy of the government has been, in termer years, to discourage foreign travel in Netherlanda-Indla and the present regulations are only a concession to the modern spirit -.which demands free in- , tercourse among the nations. | To one' who hails from a country 1 where private initiative counts for so much, It Is something of a shock to learn that nearly all the land is owned by the government. In securing from the native princes by treaty and purchase the lordship of the land, the Dutch government also Inherited the right to receive one-fifth of the produce and the labor of the peasant. This led to the Introduction, In the year 1832, of what Is known as the “culture system." This was a device to Increase the revenues, and consisted In the exaction of forced labor from the peasants, who were compelled, under official supervision, to cultivate tobacco, coffee, sugar, tea, and indigo for their masters. This system of forced labor has been greatly modified in recent years and I was informed that it now survives only to connection with the government colree plantations.