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Urban Java during the Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

John Ingleson
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The depression devastated export crop earnings from the Netherlands Indies, with consequent severe effects on a colonial economy dependent on them. For many Indonesians in the towns and cities of Java the depression was a time of difficulty but not a disaster — wage cuts, worsened conditions, slower promotions and reduced opportunities for their children may have been partially compensated by a decline in the cost-of-living. Many others, though, lost their jobs and were forced to take lower paid work or eke out a living as best they could with casual or day-wage work wherever they could get it. Some gave up on the cities for the time being and returned to their villages of origin where they were supported by family and relatives.

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Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , September 1988, pp. 292 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1988

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References

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 10th International Association of Historians of Asia (IAHA) Conference, Singapore, October 1986.

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The first Labour Bureau was established in Bandung in 1924 as part of the work of the Kantoor van Arbeid [Labour Office] created in 1921. By 1927 there were additional Labour Bureaus in Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Tegal and Pekalongan as well as in the capital Batavia.

‘Notulen der Vergadering van het Kantoor van Arbeid met de leiders der openbare arbeidsbeurzen gehouden op 9 December 1930 ten Gemeentehuise te Bandoeng’, in V16 December 1931–33. (This refers to a file in the former Ministry of Colonies archives, now located in the General State Archives, The Hague [ARA].)

2 Ibid. See also: Director of Justice to Governor-General, 10 May 1937, Secret Mail Report 1937/858, ARA.

The sharp increase in registered Indonesian unemployed in 1936 appears to have been the result of the Labour Office making a concerted effort to increase the number of educated Indonesians registering with it. The Labour Office calculated that 3853 of the Indonesians unemployed were ‘intellectuals’.

3 Director of Justice to Governor-General, 10 May 1937 and enclosures, Secret Mail Report 1937/858, ARA.

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5 MULO — Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs — schools which prepared Indonesians for entry to administrative, technical, legal and medical education.

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25 In Cirebon, labourers reportedly worked for 6–7 cents per hour compared to 9 cents per hour in Surabaya. Women labourers were paid 3 cents per hour in Cirebon compared to 5 cents per hour in Surabaya.

Soeara Boeroeh Indonesia, 30 05 1931Google Scholar, citing a report in the Soerabaiasch Handelsblad.

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55 Ibid., p. 80.

56 Ibid., p. 81.

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58 ‘Rapport betreffende een onderzoek naar de in stadsgemeente Soerabaja heerschende armoede en de maatregelen tot leeniging ervan’ [no date] enclosed in Director of Justice to Governor-General, 12 January 1933, Secret Mail Report 1933/185, ARA.

There is conflicting evidence on the rate of petty theft during the depression. On 25 February 1932 Java Bode reported that in the second half of 1931 there was a one-third increase in cases of theft brought before the Raad van Justitie and the Landraad in Batavia compared to the second half of the previous year, which it attributed to the depression. Only detailed examination of Court records and Justice Department files will provide clear evidence on this and on the growth or otherwise of destitution in the cities.

59 See: Mustika, 17 07 1931Google Scholar; Oetoesan Indonesia, 26 09 1932Google Scholar; Sin Po, 12 08 1933Google Scholar.