Mss Eur Mack Private 15

pp. i, 1-373 : The Hague, 31 August 1803. Affairs of Netherlands East Indies --- 1803. Secret Report of the Commission for East India Affairs to the Directory of State of the Batavian Republic.

The Commission was appointed to investigate the state of the Dutch East Indies and report generally (p. 2) as to the manner in which for the future the Dutch trade with these possessions should be carried on, and how they should be governed.

The report discusses these questions, as well as a number of other matters arising in connexion therewith, e.g., p. 5: The contracts with Native rulers; p. 29 : Land tenure and agriculture (particularly with reference to Java) ; p. 47 : Administrative systems (with a very depreciatory comparison of the British system in India), free trade and monopoly ; p. 81 : The sugar trade of Java ; p. 96 : The tea trade with China ; p. 116: The trade with Japan; p. 121 : Local trade in the Dutch East Indies ; p. 123 : The opium trade (which the Commission would have preferred to suppress altogether, had that course been deemed practicable) ; p. 135 : Trade with the Cape of Good Hope ; p. 139 : New system of administration in the Dutch East Indies (including the administr,tion of justice), with a detailed consideration of the powers and duties of the Governor-General, the Supreme Council, &c., the emoluments, privileges, and liabilities of the Government servants ; p. 234 : Other matters requiring improvement (particularly sanitation, especially of Batavia ; the unsatisfactory condition of the Batavian environs ; the revenue system of Java in general, involving the compulsory delivery of produce, particularly coffee and pepper, at fixed prices, which however the Commission did not propose to abolish outright, also the delivery of contingents of rice, timber, indigo and cotton thread, &c.) ; p. 285 : The maintenance (subject to necessary modifications and the prevention of arbitrary exactions) of the Javanese form of government, laws and usages ; p. 291 : Slavery; the slave trade, and debt slavery ; p. 297 : Law courts, and the separation of executive and judicial functions ; p. 358: Military matters (entrusted to the Governor-General), &c. Mack. Class XIV, 17 is a fair copy of the same report; 70 infra, a rough copy. Translated from [Rapport van] De Commissie tot de Oost-Indische Zaken, aan het Staats-Bewind der Bataafsche Republiek. The MS. contains only the Report itself, not the Bylagen (appendices of annexed documents).