Almost a year later, a Dutch consul returned to the Siamese capital. By Royal Decree of March 18, 1888, no. 8, Mr. JCT Reelfs was appointed consul of Bangkok with effect from April 15 of that year. Reelfs, who had previously worked in Suriname, turned out to be no keeper, however. Barely a year later, on April 29, 1889, he was dismissed by Royal Decree.
Baron RC Keun van Hoogerwoerd was appointed in his place. This diplomat thereby retained his personal title of consul general. Whether he was happy with his new job is doubtful because before long he was complaining about the many assignments that fell to him. The high workload was apparently not in proportion to the salary, which he considered too low. His incessant complaints were not without effect. The then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jhr. C. Hartsen, transferred the student consul Ferdinand Jacob Domela Nieuwenhuis from Singapore to Bangkok, to assist the consul general in his busy work. On July 3, 1890, Domela Nieuwenhuis arrived in Bangkok together with his heavily pregnant Swiss-German wife Clara von Rordorf. A month later, on August 5 to be exact, their first child Jacob was born here. Upon his arrival, it turned out that Keun van Hoogerwoerd was seriously ill and was waiting to be transported to the Netherlands, so that Domela Nieuwenhuis, who was not really prepared for this, was immediately charged with the acting task of consul. On July 29, 1892, Domela Nieuwenhuis' post in Bangkok came to an end and the family returned to The Hague, where the young diplomat was to take his consular exam shortly after arrival. On the same day, Keun van Hoogerwoerd, who had meanwhile recovered and perhaps also been refreshed, returned to Bangkok to resume his duties there.
Ferdinand Jacob Domela Nieuwenhuis
These were exciting times in the Thai capital. The Dutch consul-general sat in the front row in July 1893 during the so-called Paknam incident, when French gunboats, in order to enforce their territorial claims to part of the Siamese territory east of the Mekong, violated Siamese territory, the Chao Stepping up Phraya and blocking Bangkok. Keun van Hoogerwoerd's most important achievement was undoubtedly the planning of the second and very successful state visit that King Chulalongkorn paid to the Dutch East Indies in 1896. Until February 1897, Keun van Hoogerwoerd was the consular representative in Siam. He was then honorably discharged from service at his own request and succeeded by Jonkheer Mr. Jacques Eduard de Sturler, a descendant of a Swiss family who had mainly provided officers in the service of the State. He had previously been deputy commies in the War Department and consul in Jeddah. His grandfather was a former officer and resident of Banjoemas on Java. De Sturler was responsible for preparing the state visit that Chulalongkorn paid to the Netherlands in 1897. This visit was part of a European tour of the Siamese king, which also included Great Britain, Germany and Russia. He was received with all due respect by the 17-year-old Queen Wilhelmina, who was still under regency. During this state visit, Chulalongkorn was deeply impressed by the Dutch hydraulic engineering works, such as the dykes, pumping stations and irrigation works that he was able to view.
On May 30, 1900, EH van Delden accepted the management of the Consulate General from A. de Panafieu, charge d'affaires of France, who in 1899, after the departure of Jhr. The Struler had been in charge of the sighting. Among other things, Van Delden took care of the accommodation and reception of an important Dutch mission in the Land of Smiles. During his visit to the Netherlands in 1897, the Siamese king had studied with more than the usual interest the works governing water management. A problem that was not unfamiliar to the Siamese, especially in Bangkok. At the express request of the Siamese court, a group of Dutch hydraulic engineers, led by chief engineer JH Homan van der Heide, came to help the Siamese build canals and locks between 1902 and 1909. Consul van Delden acted as go between between the engineers and the Siamese authorities. And that was no mean feat, because the rather headstrong van der Heide regularly clashed with some of the most influential Siamese, such as Minister of Agriculture Chao Phraya Thewet, who did not like the large-scale irrigation plans of the Dutchman. Consul General van Delden remained in Bangkok for only a short time and was succeeded in mid-1903 by LJH von Zeppelin Obermüller.
Around 1903, the Siamese government posed the question of whether the exclusive consular representation was in accordance with the meaning of the Netherlands. Bangkok believed that the Dutch diplomatic representation at a upgrade when. The Siamese undersecretary of state wrote a letter asking the Dutch government to consider granting a diplomatic title to the consul general. The Minister of Foreign Affairs responded positively and submitted a proposal to HM the Queen to grant the title of chargé d'affaires. Zeppelin Obermüller was not eligible for this title, however, as he was too young.
One of the most important Dutch consuls-general in Bangkok was Ferdinand Jacob Domela Nieuwenhuis, who, as mentioned earlier, acted as acting consul-general for Keun van Hoogerwoerd from 1890-1892. On 1 September 1903 he was appointed consul general with the personal title of chargé d'affaires and on 3 September 1907 envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary. Despite the fact that the stiff and very straight-lined Domela Nieuwenhuis was not exactly popular with his fellow consuls and with the Siamese government, he was Dean of the Diplomatic Corps in Bangkok.
As a result of a pre-war diplomatic agreement, the Dutch Consul General in Bangkok represented the interests of the German and Austro-Hungarian communities in the country should they ever come into conflict with the Siamese government. From the moment Siam declared war on the Central Powers on July 22, 1917, all expatriates from the aforementioned communities, including women and children, were rounded up and interned. Domela Nieuwenhuis went to great lengths to come to their aid, and despite the official neutrality of the nation he represented, he could not help but criticize the British at the right time and often loudly, whom he intensely hated since he had worked in South Africa… Moreover, he made no secret of his pro-German orientation. The Netherlands may have stayed out of the war and pursued strict neutrality, but the Dutch Consul-General in Bangkok apparently did not care. It was therefore not really surprising that the German envoy Remy was about the only diplomat to praise this 'formidable old man'.
Historian Stefan Hell, who graduated in Leiden, is an absolute authority on the history of Siam in the first half of the twentieth century, described Siam in his standard work, published in 2017. and World War I – An International Histor Domela's performance as follows: 'This dinosaur of colonial diplomacy was an ardent protector of German interests and tormentor of prince Devawongse'. Prince Devawongse was the influential Siamese foreign minister and great-uncle of King Vajiravudh. Domela Nieuwenhuis could not resist bombarding the prince with letters and petitions for months on end. The Siamese foreign minister, known for his tactful demeanor, was so fed up with Domela's maneuvers that he spat his bile in a letter to the British envoy Sir Herbert. Domela Nieuwenhuis actions were dismissed as silly while the Dutch Consul General of the label of 'old fool' was provided. Towards the end of 1917, even the Siamese king began to get annoyed by the incessant interference of Domela and his wife, who apparently did not leave anything to chance in looking after German interests. In December 1918, Domela's actions even received international publicity when the Reuters news agency spread the message that the Siamese government had lodged a complaint against the Consul General in The Hague… The Siamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs vehemently denied this, but it was clear that Domela Nieuwenhuis was the had crossed the limits of Siamese patience…
Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis was not really concerned by the Dutch government and as far as I could tell no sanctions were taken against him. However, his position in Bangkok had become untenable and in February 1919 he was silently transferred to the Consulate General in Singapore. After Domela's departure, HJ Wesselink, representative of the Department of Agriculture, Industry and Trade in Batavia, temporarily acted as a diplomatic observer. Wesselink was initially in Bangkok to buy rice on behalf of the East Indies Government General and the Dutch part of the British crown colony on the Malacca Strait, the 'Straits Settlements'. When it turned out that the rice harvest that year had largely failed, the Siamese government issued a ban on its sale, which abruptly ended Wesselink's assignment. When he informed The Hague by telegram that he wished to return to Java, no response was received. Only after much insistence did a telegram come from the Ministry to “someone who was engaged in irrigation works in the interiorto temporarily assume the consulship. Wesselink, who found this whole course of events a mockery of diplomatic mores, therefore negotiated with the Danish consul-general himself, who eventually agreed on two conditions: he had to receive assistance from one of the few Dutch people who lived in Bangkok at that time and he would only stay in office for a few weeks because he left again for his homeland. This happened effectively and now it was the Norwegian Consul General who, on a voluntary basis and awaiting a replacement from Holland, represented the Dutch interests. He did not hold this position for long, as he was replaced a few months later by HG von Oven, then vice-consul in Singapore, who in turn, barely a few months later, in March 1920 to be precise, was appointed Consul General in Cape Town.
Once again, there appeared to be very little enthusiasm among the available diplomatic personnel in The Hague to fill the vacant position. The next diplomat to disappear to Bangkok was HWJ Huber, who had previously been the Dutch consul in Sydney, Australia. By Royal Decree of May 3, 1920, he was appointed ambassador to Bangkok. Huber arrived in Bangkok on July 28 where he and his familyRoyal' a dinner was offered by the 4 gentlemen and 1 lady who formed the entire population of the Dutch colony in the Siamese capital at that time. On August 12, less than a month after his arrival, he presented his credentials to King Vajiravudh.
The curiously rapid turnover of the diplomatic representation in Bangkok and the lack of enthusiasm to serve in this exotic location even began to be noticed in the Dutch press. In a lengthy article published on September 29, 1920, in the respected General trade magazine appeared in detail on this issue. According to the journalist in question, The Hague was hardly interested in Siam, even though the country offered numerous, mainly economic, opportunities. Moreover, according to him, a well-functioning consulate-general was absolutely no superfluous luxury, because according to his data, 125 Chinese traders and more than 2.000 Javanese and Malays fell under Dutch jurisdiction in Bangkok… In other newspapers and magazines, an old very, namely the lamentable housing of consulate and consul general. For example, not one of the successive consuls-general – unlike the vast majority of his European colleagues – had his own legation residence. The cat was ringing the bell in the August 1920 issue of Neerlandia, the monthly magazine of the Algemeen Nederlands Verbond (ANV):
"It it is regrettable that the Netherlands does not have its own Legation Building here. As the situation is now, it is quite unsustainable. Due to the great lack of housing, the new Envoy cannot find a proper home, and he has therefore had to take up residence in a hotel, while the consulate has been housed for so long in the now empty German Embassy building. The unsustainable nature of this situation becomes particularly apparent when one considers that our country has extraterritorial rights here, so that all subjects (a few thousand Javanese, Malays and Chinese) fall under our laws, which of course is a decent place to hold a court, for example, makes it indispensable. England, France, Germany, and even Portugal, all have their own grounds with decent buildings. That land was, if I am not mistaken, a gift from Siam. If we can't lead it there, there's nothing for it but to buy a piece of land and put an end to that situation once and for all.”
This accusation received some attention in the Dutch media and it was perhaps because of this that in the autumn of 1921 a building was eventually acquired on the corner of Surawong Road and Decho Road, in which the consular services were housed. This would undoubtedly have been one of HWJ Huber's greatest achievements.
However, after twelve years in Bangkok, in March 1932 Huber suddenly received the urgent request from the Minister of Foreign Affairs to submit an honorable discharge as soon as possible, since complaints about him had already been received for some time. Huber himself had never received a single warning, either from the Department or from the Siamese government.
AJD Steenstra Toussaint
Both his successors had the title of temporary chargé d'affaires, from the end of April 1932 to May 1935 HJ van Schreven acted as such and from June 1935 to December 1936 FA van Worden. The new envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, Dr. Christiaan Sigismund Lechner, a Schiedammer with German roots was established by Royal Decree of December 30, 1936, No. 19 appointed. He had previously performed consular and diplomatic services in Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Kobe, Japan, among others. He remained in office in Bangkok until his retirement, just before the outbreak of World War II.
Thailand did not escape the Great World Fire. On December 8, 1941, the country was occupied by Japan. The Japanese military authorities in Bangkok almost immediately took possession of the foreign legations with which they were at war. To prevent the Dutch consulate general from falling into their hands, the acting consul general and minister plenipotentiary, Abraham Johan Daniël Steenstra-Toussaint – a second cousin of the well-known writer Louis Couperus – was forced to hand over the administration of the Dutch legation. to the Swedish representative. After all, Sweden had remained neutral in World War II. In fact, the circle was complete because Paul Pickenpack had looked after the affairs of Sweden eighty years earlier, when the Dutch consulate was started up in 1860…. Steenstra-Touissaint survived the war and would be the Dutch ambassador to the Philippines from 1948 to 1951. Afterwards he became director of Thomsen's Port Authority in Rotterdam and became involved in all kinds of aviation initiatives such as Rotterdam Air and Transavia. He had been the last in a long and at times colorful row of consuls and consuls-general who had held the highest Dutch diplomatic status in Bangkok. Afterwards – and to this day – it was the turn of the ambassadors….
Thank you, Lung Jan. A very nice story and I like the historical background information. Thanks!