THE DUTCH POLITICAL CONFLICT

WITH THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA, 1945-1949

PART 3: THE GENERAL-COMMISSION (COMMISSIE-GENERAAL) FOR THE NETHERLANDS INDIES,

1946-1947

Part 3.1. Papers of W. Schermerhorn (chairman)

National Archives of the Netherlands, The Hague

on microfiche

Willem Schermerhorn drawn by Henk Ngantoeng, November 1946 (from Part 3.3. Papers of P. Sanders)

Short biography

Willem Schermerhorn was born in 1894 in the province of North Holland, the Netherlands. He studied civil engineering and went on to become a professor of surveying and geodesy at the famous technical college in Delft. Later he became known worldwide as a pioneer in the techniques of aerial photography and aerial surveying, undertaking for example the mapping of New Guinea in 1936. Politically Schermerhorn belonged to the radical liberal tradition represented by the Vrijzinnig-Democratische Bond (VDB). During World War II he was first held hostage by the German occupiers and during confinement took part in discussions on how to renew the country’s political system. After his release he was active in the Resistance, editing an underground newspaper. In the war’s aftermath he became prime minister of the first cabinet of “recovery and renewal” from June 1945 until July 1946 and joined the new Labor Party (Partij van de Arbeid), which resulted in February 1946 from a merger of the prewar Social Democratic Workers Party, the VDB and others. As chairman of the Commissie-Generaal voor Nederlandsch-Indië he set a determined but realistic anticolonial course that was very unpopular in the country, but led to the signing of the agreement of Linggajati in November 1946 by himself and Sutan Sjahir for the Republic of Indonesia. In the months that followed, talks on carrying out the agreement were pursued by the Commission to no avail and Schermerhorn himself came to accept military action as inevitable.

Schermerhorn remained in politics until 1965 serving as member of the lower and upper houses of Parliament, although he no longer played a decisive role. In 1970 he published his diary covering the above period (Het dagboek van Schermerhorn, 2 vols., Groningen: C. Smit, 1970). He died in 1977.

The papers

Schermerhorn’s papers micropublished here concern first and foremost his chairmanship of the Commissie-Generaal (1946-1947). They include

• extensive correspondence with Dutch political figures during and about this period
• minutes of meetings between the commission and the prime minister and minister of the colonies
• copies of telegrams sent and received by the commission
• minutes of “political discussions” with Indonesian delegations
• memos and bulletins of the Government Information Agency, and others. 

In addition, there are also many files containing correspondence, memos and notes, articles and press clippings on the Indonesian and New Guinea questions more generally. Finally there is a manuscript of and correspondence on the publication of his diary of the period.