Nationaal Comité Handhaving Rijkseenheid
action group
The Nationaal Comité Handhaving Rijkseenheid, fully the Nationaal Comité tot Handhaving der Rijkseenheid (English: National Committee for the Maintenance of Unity of the Kingdom), commonly shortened to Comité Rijkseenheid (English: Committee for Unity of the Kingdom) was an extra-parliamentary action group in the Netherlands that unsuccessfully appealed the 1946 Linggadjati Agreement between the Dutch government and the Republic of Indonesia regarding the exercise of authority over the Dutch East Indies. Enjoying wide support, in 1947 there were more than 250 local Committee meetings throughout the Netherlands, and by July 1947 it was able to collect 236,000 signatures for a petition.
History
Background
On 2 December 1946, former Prime Minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy gave a fiery radio speech against the Linggadjati Agreement of 15 November 1946, in which he stated that the Netherlands would lose World War II after all through its own fault, if it ceded the Dutch East Indies (the use of the word 'Indonesia' was avoided). He argued that the Agreement betrayed the principles of Queen Wilhelmina's wartime radio speech from London on 7 December 1942, because although the East Indies were to receive their own status, they were also to remain within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This broadcast received national acclaim and encouraged conservative liberals Willem Feuilletau de Bruyn and E.J. van Rees Vellinga to organize a signature campaign with a 'supplication' to the Queen under the motto "we demand the maintenance of unity of the Kingdom", which yielded 300,000 signatures within two weeks. Gerbrandy and many others saw the Republic of Indonesia as a legacy of the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, led by the collaborator Sukarno, who, among other things, would have no regard for the rights of Indonesian peoples other than the Javanese.
Founding and leadership
The Comité Rijkseenheid was founded on 14 December 1946 by Gerbrandy with a group of prominent, like-minded people. The name referred to the first article of the then-Constitution, regarding unity of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of the Netherlands consisted of four equal parts, namely the Netherlands, the Dutch East Indies, Suriname, and Curaçao and Dependencies (the Netherlands Antilles). Leadership of the Comité Rijkseenheid consisted of Gerbrandy as chairman of the daily and general management, former Minister of the Colonies Charles Welter as vice-chairman, and Willem Reyseger as secretary.
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