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The edible tide: How estuaries and migrants transformed the Straits of Melaka, 1870–1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2021

Anthony D. Medrano
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Abstract

The Straits of Melaka have long played a central role in the history of Southeast Asia, from facilitating the movement of people, ideas, and commodities to marking the salty edge of states, empires, and sultanates. Networks, circulations, and mobilities have shaped our vision and understanding of this waterway. This article charts a different kind of story, one that explores the Straits not as a space of passage but rather as a place of production. It shows how and why these waters became an industrial fishing zone — an industrial estuary, as it were — in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Through the case of Bagan Si Api Api, a Hokkien-built town at the mouth of Sumatra's Rokan River, it explains why estuaries and migrants were central to Southeast Asia's urban rise from 1870 to 1940. By looking at the Straits during this pivotal moment, the article reveals the ways in which ecologies, beliefs, technologies, and cultures all combined to shape not only the economic life of Southeast Asia's estuaries, but also, and more importantly, the place of these estuaries in the region's economic life.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , December 2020 , pp. 579 - 596
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Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore, 2021

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank David Biggs and the other organisers and participants in the 2018 ‘Southeast Asian Natures’ workshop as well as the JSEAS editors and reviewers. He would also like to thank the Harvard University Center for the Environment for its support and community from 2017 to 2019. For their generosity, he would like to thank Sunil Amrith, Barbara Andaya, John Butcher, Alfred McCoy, Prasannan Parthasarathi, Faizah Zakaria, and Ingeborg Eggink at the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen. Parts of this article were presented at Harvard, Cornell, Wisconsin, Georgetown, UCLA, and the 2018 meeting of the Association for Asian Studies. He thanks these audiences for their comments and questions. And for their kindness and curiosity, the author would especially like to acknowledge Adila and Gita Prasodjo for wading with him through Sumatra's muddy past.

References

1 See for example, Tagliacozzo, Eric, Secret trades, porous borders: Smuggling and states along a Southeast Asian frontier, 1865–1915 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005)Google Scholar; Andaya, Leonard Y., Leaves of the same tree: Trade and ethnicity in the Straits of Melaka (Singapore: NUS Press, 2008)Google Scholar; and Lewis, Su Lin, Cities in motion: Urban life and cosmopolitanism in Southeast Asia, 1920–1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 See for example, Zulkifli, Noraini, Alatas, Sharifah Munirah and Othman, Zarina, ‘The importance of the Malacca Straits to Japan: Cooperation and contributions toward littoral states’, Jebat: Malaysian Journal of History, Politics & Strategic Studies 41, 2 (2014): 80–98Google Scholar. See also Nippon Foundation, ‘Safety in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore’ (n.p., 2014); available at: https://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/en/what/projects/safe_passage.

3 I examine the role of food fish in the rise of urban Southeast Asia in my book-in-progress, The edible ocean: Science, industry, and the rise of urban Southeast Asia (under contract with Yale University Press).

4 Gullick, J.M., ‘The Negri Sembilan economy of the 1890's’, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JMBRAS) 24, 1 (1951): 38Google Scholar.

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6 For the scale of migration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, see Amrith, Sunil S., Migration and diaspora in modern Asia (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 2011), esp. pp. 18–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 See van Veen, A.G., ‘Fermented and dried seafood products in Southeast Asia’, in Fish as food, vol. III; Processing: Part 1, ed. Borgstrom, Georg (New York: Academic Press, 1965), pp. 227–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mizutani, Tadashi et al. , ‘A chemical analysis of fermented fish products and discussion of fermented flavors in Asian cuisines’, Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology 12, 3 (1987): 803Google Scholar; Ruddle, Kenneth, ‘The supply of marine fish species for fermentation in Southeast Asia’, Bulletin of the National Museum of Ethnology 11, 4 (1987): 997–8Google Scholar; and Butcher, John G., The closing of the frontier: A history of the marine fisheries of Southeast Asia, c.1850–2000 (Singapore: ISEAS, 2004), p. 34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 My use of ‘somatic landscape’ is borrowed from David Biggs and refers to the energy resources (food fish) that fed the region's productive power. For more on the ‘somatic energy regime’, see McNeill, J.R., Something new under the sun: An environmental history of the twentieth-century world (New York: Norton, 2001), pp. 11–12Google Scholar and Muscolino, Micah, The ecology of war in China: Henan Province, the Yellow River, and beyond, 1938–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), p. 106Google Scholar.

9 I am greatly indebted to John G. Butcher for his boundless generosity and indispensable scholarship on the historical marine fisheries of Southeast Asia, including his early work on belachan and Bagan Si Api Api.

10 In the 1920s and 1930s, Bagan was frequently described as the ‘tropical Bergen’ in the Dutch and Indies press because it rivalled — in terms of total tonnage produced — the Norwegian fishing port. See ‘Visscherijbedrijven in Ned.-Indie’, Algemeen Handelsblad, 6 May 1932, p. 9; and ‘Pandelingschap in Ned.-Indie’, Algemeen Handelsblad, 7 Feb. 1931, p. 7. See also ‘Iets over de Rokanlanden’, Sumatra Post, 25 Feb. 1924, p. 13; ‘Productiecijfers van Bengkalis’, Sumatra Post, 22 July 1924, p. 10; ‘De Eerste of de Tweede?’, Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, 19 Mar. 1928, p. 1; ‘Millions of fish’, Brisbane Courier, 20 July 1932, p. 15; and ‘“Bagan” de Groote Visch-haven’, De Telegraaf, 8 Dec. 1934, p. 10.

11 On the history and importance of Chinese fishing villages within the Straits, see the invaluable work of John Butcher. In particular, Butcher, The closing of the frontier, pp. 80–82; J.G. Butcher, ‘The salt farm and the fishing industry of Bagan Si Api Api’, Indonesia 62 (1996): 90–121.

12 For an excellent example of fish as commodity in colonial mainland Southeast Asia, see Nola Cooke, ‘Tonle Sap processed fish: From Khmer subsistence staple to colonial export commodity’, in Chinese circulations: Capital, commodities, and networks in Southeast Asia, ed. Eric Tagliacozzo and Wen-Chin Chang (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011), pp. 360–79.

13 For example, in 1931, supplies of ikan busok were exported from Bagan to feed pigs in Melaka. See ‘Een Chineesche Kolonie’, Sumatra Post, 5 Sept. 1931, p. 6. B.J. Haga, colonial controleur at Bagan (1915–17), noted that poor quality ikan busok was used as pig feed and that of higher quality was consumed by people: Haga, B.J., ‘De Beteekenis der Visscherij Industrie van Bagan Api Api en Hare Toekomst’, Economist 66, 1 (1917): 242CrossRefGoogle Scholar. According to the Director of Fisheries in colonial Malaya, C. Boden Kloss, about 75% of Chinese fishers raised pigs. See ‘Report on the Fisheries Department for the Year 1920’, Supplement to the F.M.S. Government Gazette, July 1, 1921 (Singapore: GPO, 1921), p. 3.

14 See ‘Appendix A: Report on the kembong fishery of the West Coast’, Annual Departmental Reports of the Straits Settlements for the Year 1937, vol. 1 (Singapore: GPO, 1938), p. 576; Gopinath, K., ‘The Malayan purse seine (pukat jerut) fishery’, JMBRAS 23, 3 (1950): 75–96Google Scholar; and Ward, Marion, ‘Malayan fishing ports and their inland connections’, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 55, 5 (1964): 114Google Scholar.

15 See Hardenberg, J.D.F., ‘Some remarks on the genus Stolephorus Lacepede in the Indo-Australian archipelago’, Treubia 14 (1932–34): 313–75Google Scholar.

16 See Masyhuri, ‘Pasang surut usaha perikanan laut tinjauan sosial-ekonomi kenelayanan di Jawa dan Madura, 1850–1940’ (PhD diss., Vrije Universiteit, 1995), p. 27. On recipes that called for ikan bilis, see Pengatahoean tentang restaurant Tionghoa, berbagi-bagi industrie dan pemiaraan heiwan (Semarang-Batavia: Boekhandel Ho Kim Yoe, 1937).

17 F. Maron (?), ‘Le commerce du poisson sec aux Indes Neerlandaises’, Bulletin Economique de L'Indochine 42, 2 (1939): 373. See also ‘Pasarprijzen’, Sumatra Post, 27 Apr. 1925, p. 10; ‘Pasarprijzen’, Sumatra Post, 4 Oct. 1926, p. 8; ‘Gedroogde Visch’, Sumatra Post, 2 Apr. 1927, p. 8; ‘Pasarprijzen’, Sumatra Post, 27 Jan. 1930, p. 11; ‘Pasarprijzen’, Sumatra Post, 22 Dec. 1941, p. 8; and ‘Problemen rond het Huishoudboekje’, Nieuwsblad voor Sumatra, 6 Nov. 1948, p. 3.

18 See the petition from Pulau Ketam's Chinese fishers to Port Swettenham's Harbormaster about their belachan industry, 22 Mar. 1905, file no. 1690/1905, National Archive of Malaysia (NAM), Kuala Lumpur; and their petition to the same Harbormaster about the cost of producing belachan, 21 Apr. 1908, file no. 2239/1908, NAM.

19 ‘Cheaper and better food’, Malaya Tribune, 8 May 1924, p. 7; and J. Westenberg, ‘Fishery products of Indochina: A compilation of literature up to the Japanese invasion’, Proceedings of the Indo-Pacific Fisheries Council 2, 2 (1950): 133–4.

20 ‘Belachan trade’, Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 27 Sept. 1924, p. 12; ‘Tropical recipes’, Malaya Tribune, 6 Aug. 1932, p. 13; ‘Manufacture of blachan’, Straits Times, 24 Feb. 1937, p. 13; ‘$788 front: Belachan’, Straits Times, 15 Oct. 1953, p. 5; and ‘Mari-lah kita masak sayor lemak bayam dan keledek’, Berita Harian, 4 May 1959, p. 6.

21 For a sense of the scale of belachan production at Bagan in the early twentieth century, see Haga, ‘De Beteekenis der Visscherij’, p. 240. As a colonial officer, Bauke Jan Haga (1890–1943) had an intimate knowledge of Bagan, its fishing industry, and the surrounding Rokan ecology because he had served on the Sumatra side of the Straits from 1913 to 1917—with an important post as the controleur at Bagan Si Api Api from 1915 to 1917. From 1937 to 1942, Haga held positions as the resident of Maluku and governor of South and East Borneo. During the Japanese Occupation, Haga was interned (along with his wife) in Banjarmasin, and died during a foiled prison break attempt in 1943. For more on Haga's death, see Ooi Keat Gin, The Japanese Occupation of Borneo, 1941–1945 (New York: Routledge, 2011), pp. 103–4.

22 The Dutch controleur at Bagan, J.C.C. Haar, described this festival, referring to it as a ceremony, in the 1930s. See Memorie van Overgave van Bagan Si Api Api, 1934–1936, Ministerie van Kolonien: Memories van Overgave, No. 869, Nationaal Archief, The Hague (NA), p. 28.

23 Isnaini, Zuli Laili, ‘Go Cap Lak: Ritual dan identitas baru etnis Tionghoa di Bagansiapiapi’, Media Wisata 7, 1 (2012): 5–6Google Scholar.

24 See Ely Sovita, ‘Perubahan makna tradisi perayaan Bakar Tongkang pada masyarakat Tionghoa di Kota Bagansiapiapi’ (MA thesis, Universitas Sumatera Utara, 2012), p. 2; Swis Tantoro, ‘Makna simbolik tradisi Bakar Tongkang (Go Ge Cap Lak) di Kabupaten Rokan Hilir’ (Pekanbaru: Universitas Riau, 2013); and Welly Wirman et al., ‘Etnografi komunikasi tradisi Bakar Tongkang (Go Ge Cap Lak) di Kabupaten Rokan Hilir’, Jurnal ASPIKOM 3, 5 (July 2018): 846–59.

25 See Rony Muharram (Anatara Foto), ‘Ritual Bakar Tongkang Rokan Hilir’, https://tirto.id/bnUP (accessed 20 June 2018).

26 van Kampen, P.N., ‘Aanteekeningen omtrent de Visscherij van Sumatra en Riouw’, Mededeelingen van het Visscherij-Station te Batavia 3 (1909): 7Google Scholar; van Rijn van Alkemade, J.A., ‘Beschrijving eener Reis van Bengkalis Langs de Rokan-Rivier naar Rantau Binoewang’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 32, 1 (1884): 26CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and G. Masset, ‘Het Visscherijbedrijf te Bagan si Api-Api’, Volkscredietwezen (Oct. 1936): 126.

27 On the arrival of Hokkiens in the 1870s, see Vleming, J.L., Het Chineesche Zakenleven in Nederlandsch Indië door den Belasting Accountants Dienst onder leiding van J.L. Vleming (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1926), p. 234Google Scholar.

28 Alkemade, ‘Beschrijving eener Reis’, p. 30. There were also a small number of ‘Keh-Chineezen’.

29 ‘Bagan Api Api’, Sumatra Post, 30 June 1909, p. 1.

30 See ‘Een Stuk China in Nederlandsch-Indie’, Niuewsblad van het Noorden, 14 Nov. 1930, p. 13.

31 ‘Een Chineesche Kolonie’, Sumatra Post, 5 Sept. 1931, p. 6.

32 The following details of street life are drawn from the account found in: ‘Een Chineesche Kolonie’, Sumatra Post, 5 Sept. 1931, p. 6. On street names, see Haga, ‘De Beteekenis der Visscherij’, p. 239. On peat soil, see Weekblad voor Indie 17, 5, 9 May 1920, p. 70.

33 On urban lighting, see J. Moerman, In en om de Chineesche Kamp (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1929), p. 20.

34 See ‘Bagan Si Api Api’, Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, 6 Nov. 1915, p. 1.

35 ‘Bagan Api Api’, Sumatra Post, 30 June 1909, p. 1.

36 Ibid.

37 Bottemanne, C.J., Verslag over de Visscherij en Vischhandel van Bagan Si Api-Api (Batavia: Instituut voor de Zeevischerij, 1929[1941]), p. 12Google Scholar.

38 Bagan's boom, however, also caused a surge in local opium consumption. See ‘Increased opium smoking’, Straits Times, 1 Oct. 1934, p. 12. For more on Bagan as the second largest fishing port, see ‘Iets over de Rokanlanden’, Sumatra Post, 25 Feb. 1924, p. 13; ‘Productiecijfers van Bengkalis’, Sumatra Post, 22 July 1924, p. 10; ‘De Eerste of de Tweede?’, Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, 19 Mar. 1928, p. 1; ‘Millions of fish’, Brisbane Courier, 20 July 1932, p. 15; ‘“Bagan” de Groote Visch-haven’, De Telegraaf, 8 Dec. 1934, p. 10; and ‘Ons Indiche Hoekje’, Oprechte Haarlemsche Courant, 11 June 1941, p. 8.

39 ‘Visscherijbedrijven in Ned-Indie’, Nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indie, 2 Aug. 1926, p. 9.

40 ‘Bagan Si Api Api weer No. 1’, Indische Courant, 2 Oct. 1934, p. 6. See further Memorie van Overgave van Bagan Si Api Api, 1934–1936, Ministerie van Kolonien: Memories van Overgave, No. 869, NA, p. 76.

41 ‘Telegraafkabel Tdj. Balai-Bagan Si Api Api’, Sumatra Post, 19 Aug. 1916, p. 10. See ‘Bagan Si Api-Api’, Sumatra Post, 1 Mar. 1918, p. 9.

42 On the lighthouse and its maintenance, see China Sea Pilot, vol. 1 (London: Hydrographic Office, 1916), p. 123; ‘Light burning’, Straits Times, 6 Feb. 1934, p. 3; ‘Singapore Harbour Board’, Straits Times, 10 Jan. 1935, p. 3; ‘Rokan River Light’, Malaya Tribune, 1 Mar. 1935, p. 6; and ‘Rokan River Light’, Malaya Tribune, 19 Mar. 1936, p. 6. For more on the role of salt in Bagan's fishing industry, see Butcher, ‘The salt farm’, pp. 90–121. On the geography of the salt trade (and salt as contraband), see ‘Zoutbelasting ter Oostkust’, Sumatra Post, 31 Jan. 1906, p. 6. See also B. Markus, Visscherij Methoden en Vischproducten van Bagan Si Api-Api (Batavia: Instituut voor de Zeevisscherij, 1929[1941]), p. 19; Van Kampen, ‘Aanteekeningen omtrent de Visscherij’, pp. 14–15; and L. Tip, ‘Het Chineesche Visscherijbedrijf te Bagansiapiapi’, Indie 8 (1924–25): 307.

43 ‘Oost van Sumatra: De Veeteelt’, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen 2, 3 (July 1919): 88. With cargo shipping on the rise, increased traffic also meant increased risk as the waters in the Straits of Melaka were still treacherous because of weather, reefs, and pirates. See ‘Untitled’, Straits Times, 26 Sept. 1922, p. 8; ‘Zeeroovers in Bengkalis’, Sumatra Post, 19 Mar. 1924, p. 10; ‘De Zeerooverij in de Straat van Malakka’, Indische Courant, 31 July 1924, p. 9; ‘Zeeroover op Vrije Voeten gesteld’, Nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indie, 4 Feb. 1931, p. 3; ‘Runs aground’, Straits Times, 20 Nov. 1933, p. 3; and ‘Pirates in Selangor’, Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 21 Mar. 1935, p. 6; ‘Zeerooverij in de Straat van Malakka’, Nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indie, 25 Mar. 1935, p. 2.

44 Van Kampen, ‘Aanteekeningen omtrent de Visscherij’, p. 9. For more on Wee Leong Tan, see ‘The late Wee Leong Tan’, Straits Times, 19 May 1913, p. 9; Song Ong Siang, One hundred years’ history of the Chinese in Singapore (London: John Murray, 1923), p. 351; and Butcher, ‘The salt farm’, p. 99.

45 Haga, ‘De Beteekenis der Visscherij’, p. 240; ‘Gouvernement en K.P.M.’, Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, 10 Nov. 1921, p. 6; and ‘De Visscherij van Bagan Si Api Api’, Sumatra Post, 5 June 1929, p. 10.

46 Masset, ‘Het Visscherijbedrijf te Bagan si Api-Api’, pp. 133–4; and ‘Bagan Si Api-Api’, Preanger-Bode, 4 May 1920, p. 5.

47 ‘De “Ville Lumiere” der donkere Bengkalis-afdeeling’, Sumatra Post, 28 Oct. 1936, p. 5. A regular fleet of ‘trassiebooten’, or steamers shipping belachan, circulated between Bagan and Java. See ‘Bagan Si Api Api, een Vestiging van Chineezen’, Sumatra Post, 28 Oct. 1936, p. 5; and D.M., ‘Indias’, De Uitlaat 18, 9 Sept. 1965, p. 7.

48 van Kampen, P.N., Visscherij en Vischteelt in Nederlandsch-Indie (Haarlem: H.D. Tjeenk Willink & Zoon, 1922), p. 76Google Scholar.

49 Masset, ‘Het Visscherijbedrijf te Bagan si Api-Api’, p. 133. See Mizutani et al., ‘A chemical analysis of fermented fish products’, p. 803; and Butcher, ‘The salt farm’, p. 97.

50 Willy, ‘Een Bloeiend Bedrijf’, Weekblad voor Indie 17, 5, 4 May 1920, p. 71; and G. Schaap, ‘Uittreksels uit de Memorie van Overgave van Het Bestuur over de Residentie Oostkust van Sumatra’, Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Nederlansch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap 2 (1907): 30.

51 Hardenberg, J.D.F., ‘The fishfauna of the Rokan Mouth’, Treubia 13, 1 (1931): 81Google Scholar. On Sumatra's plantation boom, particularly around Deli, see Butcher, The closing of the frontier, pp. 62–5.

52 The ikan busok catch would be salted wholesale without any cleaning or selection. Fish species commonly caught, processed, and mixed as ikan busok were: gulamah (Sciaenoides spp.), bilis (Stolephorus baganensis), biang biang (Setipinna breviceps), senangin (Eleutheronema tetradactylum), trubuk (Clupea toli), and puput (Pellona spp.). See Hardenberg, ‘The fishfauna of the Rokan Mouth’, p. 159.

53 Masset, ‘Het Visscherijbedrijf te Bagan si Api-Api’, p. 134; Bottemanne, Verslag over de Visscherij en Vischhandel, p. 15; ‘De Visscherij van Bagan Si Api Api’, Sumatra Post, 5 June 1929, p. 10; and ‘Een Chineesche Kolonie’, Sumatra Post, 5 Sept. 1931, p. 6.

54 Markus, Visscherij Methoden en Vischproducten, p. 34; Haga, ‘De Beteekenis der Visscherij’, p. 242; Van Kampen, Visscherij en Vischteelt in Nederlandsch-Indie, p. 80; ‘Bagan Si Api Api’, Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, 6 Nov. 1915, p. 1; ‘Een Groote Vischbedrijf in Indie’, Sumatra Post, 8 May 1916, p. 10; and ‘Langs Sumatra's Oostkust’, Nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indie, 2 Aug. 1926, pp. 9–10.

55 Bottemanne, Verslag over de Visscherij en Vischhandel, pp. 20–21.

56 Hardenberg, ‘The fishfauna of the Rokan mouth’, p. 83. Hardenberg was director of the Laboratory from 1933 until the late 1950s. He was also a founding member of the Indo-Pacific Fisheries Council (established in 1948). Hardenberg served as chair of the Council from 1950 to 1951.

57 Ibid., p. 140.

58 Bottemanne, Verslag over de Visscherij en Vischhandel, p. 3.

59 Hardenberg, ‘The fishfauna of the Rokan mouth’, p. 143.

60 Ibid., p. 151.

61 Hardenberg, J.D.F., Onderzoek en Problemen der Indische Zeeen (Batavia: Departement van Landbouw en Visserij, 1949), p. 19Google Scholar.

62 Hardenberg, ‘The fishfauna of the Rokan mouth’, pp. 98–9.

63 Hardenberg, J.D.F., ‘Estuarine problems in South East Asia’, Proceedings of the Indo-Pacific Fisheries Council 2, 3 (1951): 178Google Scholar.

64 Hardenberg, J.D.F., ‘The existence of an aestuarine fishfauna in South East Asia’, Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde 28, 1 (1949): 165CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 Van Kampen, ‘Aanteekeningen omtrent de Visscherij’, p. 7. Pieter Nicolaas van Kampen (1878–1937) finished his PhD in zoology at the University of Amsterdam in 1904 under the mentorship of Max Wilhelm Carl Weber, and worked at the Fisheries Station in Batavia from 1905 to 1911 (serving as its director in 1911). After contracting an illness on a New Guinea expedition in 1910, van Kampen returned to Amsterdam and taught zoology. He was a professor of zoology at Leiden University from 1917 to 1931. One of his most important publications was Visscherij en Vischteelt in Nederlandsch-Indie (Haarlem: Willink & Zoon, 1922).

66 Haga, ‘De Beteekenis der Visscherij’, p. 241.

67 Hardenberg, ‘The fishfauna of the Rokan mouth’, p. 84.

68 K.J. Boeijinga, ‘De Visscherij van Bagan Api Api’, Koloniaal Tijdschrift (Sept. 1926): 451–2. See also Rinkes, D.A., van Zalinge, N. and de Roever, J.W., Het Indische Boek der Zee (Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1925), p. 151Google Scholar; and ‘De Moderniseering van de Zeevisscherijen van Nederlandsch Oost-Indie’, Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, 28 May 1925, p. 1.

69 Van Kampen, ‘Aanteekeningen omtrent de Visscherij’, p. 9.

70 Butcher, ‘The salt farm’, p. 110; and van Kampen, ‘Aanteekeningen omtrent de Visscherij’, p. 9.

71 Markus, Visscherij Methoden en Vischproducten, pp. 2–3; and Haga, ‘De Beteekenis der Visscherij’, p. 241.

72 Van Kampen, ‘Aanteekeningen omtrent de Visscherij’, p. 12.

73 Bottemanne, Verslag over de Visscherij en Vischhandel, p. 4.

74 Hardenberg, ‘The fishfauna of the Rokan mouth’, p. 84; and Butcher, ‘The salt farm’, p. 94.

75 Butcher, ‘The salt farm’, p. 96.

76 Violence first started in early 1946. An eyewitness, Mr Ng Tok Kek, reported that on the anniversary of Sun Yat-sen's death (Mar. 12), clashes broke out over the raising of the Chinese national flag between Bagan residents and a ‘gang of Indonesian extremists’, despite Republican authorities having granted permission to Bagan to hoist the flag and commemorate the anniversary. The violence resulted in the death of the Chinese kapitan and 17 Indonesians. See ‘Indonesian–Chinese clash in Sumatra’, Sunday Tribune, 17 Mar. 1946, p. 4; and Remco Raben, ‘Anti-Chinese violence in the Indonesian Revolution’, paper presented at the conference, ‘Dekolonisasi dan posisi etnis Tionghoa Indonesia, 1930s–1960s’, Padang, Indonesia, 18–21 June 2006, p. 4. For events between May and Sept. 1946, see ‘Chineesch-Indonesisch incident’, Nieuwe Courant, 25 Sept. 1946, p. 1; ‘Bagan Api Api fisherfolk to settle here’, Straits Times, 10 Oct. 1946, p. 5; ‘Chinese evacuate Api Api’, Singapore Free Press, 10 Oct. 1946, p. 5; and ‘Bagan-Siapi-Api: Staat in een Staat’, Locomotief, 8 Jan. 1949, p. 2.

77 ‘Ho Hong ship detained by Indonesians’, Straits Times, 15 Oct. 1946, p. 5.

78 ‘Singapore fish supply cut’, Singapore Free Press, 13 Dec. 1946, p. 1; and ‘Chinese fishermen turn to Andamans’, Straits Times, 8 Oct. 1946, p. 3.

79 M. Unar, ‘A review of the Indonesian shrimp fishery and its present developments’, Marine Fisheries Review 36, 1 (Jan. 1974): 21. See also Dwiponggo, A., ‘Indonesia's marine fisheries resources’, in Indonesian marine capture fisheries, ed. Bailey, C., Dwiponggo, A. and Marahudin, F. (Manila: International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management, 1987), pp. 21–2Google Scholar.