“They chose too... And something great was destroyed there”. This caption is a variant on the famous phrase “Something great was achieved there” by the seventeenth-century governor of the Dutch East Indies Jan Pieterszoon Coen. It is used here to garner support in the Netherlands for the colonial project. The poster was produced by the National Committee for the Maintenance of the Empire (Nationaal Comité Handhaving Rijkseenheid), a fierce advocate for keeping the Dutch East Indies. The poster makes clear where the committee stands on the topic. Not only are the Indonesian leaders Sukarno and Hatta labelled Japanese “accomplices” — a common narrative at the time — but there is also criticism of the Dutch politician Schermerhorn, the “governor” Van Mook and the British mediator Lord Killearn. The three are painted as just as much of an adversary as the Indonesians themselves, which shows the extent of the internal divisions within the Netherlands concerning the ‘Indies question’.
Poster for the Nationaal Comité Handhaving Rijkseenheid. Two fonts. Netherlands, 1948. Publisher: Nationaal Comité Handhaving Rijkseenheid. D Or. 704, number 29.