Were it still necessary to prove the gentleness with which Havelaar fulfilled his difficult duty, that proof could be found in the verbal message which he intrusted to the Controller, when Verbrugge was going for a few days to Serang. “Tell the Resident that he, on hearing of the abuses that take place here, must not believe that I am indifferent on the subject, of which I do not immediately make an official report, because I would spare the Regent, for whom I feel pity, from too great severity, so I will try first to bring him to a sense of duty by gentleness.”
Havelaar was often out for many days together. When he was at home, he was for the most part to be found in the room which we represented in our plan as No. 7. There he was generally occupied in writing, and received the persons who asked an audience. He had chosen this spot, because there he was near his Tine, who was generally in the next room;—for so cordially were they bound together, that Max, even when he was occupied with work that needed attention and exertion, continually wanted to see and hear her. It was often comical how he [[281]]suddenly spoke to her about what came up in his thoughts about the subjects that occupied him, and how quickly she, without understanding of what he treated, knew how to seize the sense of his meaning, which he did not generally explain, as if it was a matter of course, that she knew what he meant. Often when he was discontented with his own labour, or bad news just received, he would jump up and say something unkind to her, who was not to blame for his discontent. But she liked to hear this, because it was another proof how Max confounded her with himself. And, therefore, there was never a question of repentance of such apparent unkindness, or of pardon on the other side. This would have appeared to them as if somebody had asked his own pardon, because he in ill humour had beaten his own forehead.
She knew him so well, that she could tell exactly when she had to be there to procure him a moment’s relaxation—exactly when he needed her advice, and not less exactly she knew when she had to leave him alone.
In this room Havelaar was seated on a certain morning, when the Controller entered with a letter in his hand just received.
“This is a difficult matter,” he said, entering; “very difficult.”
When I state that this letter imposed on him the duty of stating to Havelaar why there was a change in the prices of joiners’ work and labourers’ wages, the reader [[282]]will think that the Controller Verbrugge saw difficulties rather too readily. I make haste, therefore, to add, that many others would have thought the answer of this simple question very difficult.
A few years ago a prison had been built at Rankas-Betong. Now it is generally known that the functionaries in the interior of Java understand the art of erecting buildings that are worth thousands, without spending more than so many hundreds for them. This gains them the reputation for capacity, and zeal for the service of the country. The difference between the money expended and the value of what they get for it IS SUPPLIED BY UNPAID LABOUR. For a few years regulations have existed which forbid this. It is not the question here whether these regulations are observed, nor if the Government itself wishes them to be fulfilled with an exactness that would be burdensome on the budget of the building-department. It is with this as with other regulations that look so philanthropic on paper.
Now many buildings had to be erected at Rankas-Betong, and the engineers who were instructed to prepare plans of these had of course asked for information regarding the local rates of wages and the price of materials. Havelaar had charged the Controller to prepare an exact estimate of these matters, and had recommended him to give the true prices, without looking back to what had happened before, and Verbrugge had fulfilled this duty. But [[283]]these prices did not agree with the statements made a few years back. The reason of this difference was asked, and that was what Verbrugge deemed so very difficult. Havelaar, who knew very well what was concealed behind this apparently simple business, replied that he would communicate his ideas about this difficulty in writing; and I find amongst the documents before me a copy of the letter, which seems to be the consequence of this promise.
If the reader should perhaps complain of this detention with a correspondence on the price of joiners’ work, with which he has apparently nothing to do, I must beg him to observe that the question here is properly about quite another matter, viz., the condition of the official Indian economy, and that the letter which I communicate does not only throw another ray of light on the artificial optimism of which I have spoken, but paints at the same time the difficulty with which a man like Havelaar had to struggle, who would go on straightforward.
“No. 114.
“Rankas-Betong, March 15, 1856.
“To the Controller of Lebak.
“When I sent you the letter of the Director of Public Works, dated the 16th ultimo, No. 271/354, I begged you to answer the questions which that letter contained, after having consulted the Regent and duly [[284]]considered what I wrote in my missive of the 5th inst., No. 97.
“This missive contained some hints about what may be considered right and just with regard to the fixing of the prices of materials to be supplied by the people, to and at the charge of the Government.
“This you have done in your letter of the 8th inst., No. 6, and as I believe to the best of your knowledge, so that I, confiding in your local information and that of the Regent, have submitted these accounts, as prepared by you, to the Resident.
“This was followed by a missive from that chief functionary, dated the 11th inst., No. 326, whereby information was required about the cause of the difference between the prices given by me and those that had been sent in in 1854 and 1855 (the two preceding years) for the building of a prison.
“I, of course, put this letter into your hands, and verbally required you now to justify your statements, which ought to be less difficult for you, as it enabled you to appeal to the instructions given you in my letter of the 5th inst., and of which we spoke at length more than once. Up to this point all is very plain and simple. But yesterday, you entered my office with the Resident’s letter in your hands, and began to speak of the difficulty of clearing up the questions put therein. I perceived again some reluctance to give certain things their true [[285]]names, which I have told you of before, and lately in the presence of the Resident, something which I call for shortness’ sake halfness, and against which I often warned you in a friendly way. Halfness leads to nothing. Half is no good. Half true is untrue. For full payment, for a full rank, after a distinct complete oath, full duty must be done. If courage is sometimes necessary to fulfil that duty, one must possess that courage. For myself, I should not have the courage to lack that courage. For apart from the discontentedness with one’s-self, which is a consequence of neglect of duty or lukewarmness, the seeking for easier byeways, the desire always and everywhere to escape collisions, to settle, produces indeed more care, more danger than is to be met with in a straight policy.
“During the course of a very important affair, which is now under the consideration of the Government, and in which you ought to be concerned in an official way, I left you tacitly, as it were, neutral, and alluded laughingly from time to time to the circumstance. When, for instance, I lately received your report about the causes of poverty and starvation among the population, and replied thereto:—‘All this may be the truth; it is not the whole truth, nor the cardinal truth; the principal or main cause lies deeper’—you freely assented to this, and I made no use of my right to exact that you should make known that cardinal truth. For this indulgence [[286]]I had many reasons, and, amongst others, this, that I thought it unjust to exact suddenly from you what many others in your place would have readily afforded; to force you to say farewell in such a hurry to a course of reserve and timorousness that is not your fault, but that of the training which you have received. Finally, I wished to give you first an example how much simpler and easier it is to do one’s duty fully than only by halves. But now that I have had the honour of seeing you so long under my orders, and after having continually given you occasion to make yourself acquainted with principles, which, unless I err, will triumph at last, I should wish that you accepted them, that you would make your own the power which is not wanting, but merely in disuse, to tell me to the best of your knowledge what you have to say, and that you would bid adieu at once and for ever to that unmanly fear of telling the plain truth.
“I expect, therefore, a simple but complete report of what seems to you to be the cause of the difference in price between 1854 and 1856. I sincerely hope that you will not consider any phrase of this letter meant to hurt you. I trust that you understand me well enough, to know that I say neither more nor less than I mean, and, moreover, I give you the assurance that my observations refer less to you than to the school in which you were trained for an Indian functionary. Yet this ‘circonstance [[287]]atténuante’ would disappear if you, continuing longer with me, and serving the Government under my orders, should go on to follow the course against which I set myself.
“You may have observed that I have omitted the title ‘Right Honourable,’[3]—it annoyed me. Do the same to me, and let our honourableness, where it is necessary, come forward in another manner than by this annoying style, spoiling the use of titles.—The Assistant Resident of Lebak,
(Signed) “Max Havelaar.”