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 3.2. Papers of M.J.M. van Poll (member)

National Archives of the Netherlands, The Hague

on microfiche

Illustration from part 3.2. Papers of M.J.M. van Poll

Van Poll initialing the draft Linggajati agreement with

Dr. Gani of the Indonesian delegation

Short biography

Maximus Josephus Maria (Max) van Poll was born in North Brabant, the Netherlands in 1881 as son of an officer in the Dutch colonial army (Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, KNIL). After secondary school he embarked on a career in journalism, eventually founding his own daily newspaper De Morgen (Morning). He published numerous articles on political, economic and cultural topics.

In 1929 Van Poll was elected to parliament as representative of the Catholic party (Rooms-Katholieke Staatspartij, RKSP, later Katholieke Volkspartij, KVP), where he specialized in social-economic issues, becoming as well the party expert on questions concerning the Indies. In 1935 he took a stand in favour of “imperial self-sufficiency” through intensification of the trade relations between the Netherlands and the East Indies. Several years later he opposed, along with the entire Catholic faction, a proposal to speed up the granting of autonomy to the colony. After the war he was a member of the permanent parliamentary committee for Indies affairs. In January 1946 he proposed and subsequently chaired a parliamentary commission to investigate the situation in Indonesia (Commissie van Poll). He resigned from parliament in September 1946 to become a member of the Commissie-Generaal. His appointment was meant by the KVP to act as a brake on the progressive course planned by Commission chairman Schermerhorn and Lieutenant-Governor-General Van Mook, but in practice he became increasingly alienated from his faction. Van Poll served on the Commission until it was honorably discharged in October 1947. He died the following year.

The papers

The papers micropublished here chiefly concern the Indonesian question in the years 1945-1948 and in particular the work of the Commissie-Generaal in 1946-1947. They include

• a very extensive correspondence concerning Indonesia organized alphabetically and indexed
• official papers of the Commission received by or authored by Van Poll, organized chronologically
• printed parliamentary documents concerning Indonesia and the actions of the Commission, some with marginal notes by Van Poll
• notes, memos and reports concerning the proposed federal government for Indonesia, in particular the state of East Indonesia, and the Netherlands Indonesian Union
• printed documentation on Indonesia and New Guinea, such as newspaper and magazine articles, brochures, clippings, etc.