Femme Fatale

by Pat Shipman

  Van Marle, who made an extensive study of the question of Europeans in the Dutch East Indies, explained:

  Most of the blijvers [those Europeans who settled in the Indies] were thus of mixed blood…. Passage into the legal European grouping was possible only through: 1. Legal adoption, which had been replaced in 1867 by recognition [a legal claim by a European father to a child born of a non-European mother]; 2. registration in the registers of the registry of births, deaths, and marriages; 3. equalization by Governor-General.

  Moving from a non-European legal status to a European status carried with it substantial political, social, and financial advantages. “Equalization” was a legal ruling that a particular individual was equivalent to a European and should therefore be considered one. The conditions for such a judgment in 1897 were quite specific. An individual must be a Christian and must:

  (a) have enjoyed a European education (as [if ] educated in Europe) or in European surroundings such as those in which a European has been raised;

  (b) move well in European society (i.e., be socially or behaviorally European—facility in the Dutch language and style of dress were relevant); and

  (c) feel no longer at home in the society (or legal grouping) from which he comes.

  The year before the MacLeods went to the Indies, another legal method for moving from a non-European status to a European status was established. In 1896, Article 275 of the Civil Code was modified so that a child born out of wedlock could be legitimized without the father’s marrying the mother “if important objections existed—in the judgment of the Governor-General—against the marriage of the parents.” A Dutchman’s marrying an Indonesian woman was generally seen as objectionable, and the European’s rights to the child always prevailed. Under this law, a mixed-race, illegitimate child could be legitimized as a European.

  The objection to European-Indonesian marriages was based on the belief that, through sexual contact with native women, European men contracted “disease as well as debased sentiments, immoral proclivities, and extreme susceptibility to uncivilized states.” Prejudice against mixed-race children was so strong that the extent of criminality or delinquency among youths in the European category was seen as directly reflecting the percentage of Indonesian blood that ran in their veins.

  All of the elaborate gradations of racial admixture and how they were to be treated according to Indies society might have been little more than a new and complex set of social rules to learn but for one thing: Gretha’s distinctive skin color, dark eyes, and dark hair gave her the appearance of being part Indonesian. She had been teased about this even as a child in Friesland. Ironically, her coloring was probably a major part of Rudolf’s immediate sexual attraction to her, since it is highly likely that all of his previous sexual encounters had been with Indo women.

  Gretha’s appearance was extremely important in the Indies, much more so than any previous biographer has appreciated. When she walked into a room full of strangers in the Indies, people would not wonder who Captain MacLeod’s new Dutch wife was. Instead, they would be surprised that such a proud and haughty officer, one so concerned with his social status, had married an Indo. Those who presumed he had gotten permission to marry her probably speculated how he had managed that; those who suspected he had not obtained permission would assume it had been denied because of her obviously mixed ancestry. And yet, Gretha was as fully Dutch as any blond, blue-eyed woman from the Netherlands could be.

  The issue of race certainly arose during Gretha’s first days in Java. The MacLeod family stayed first in Batavia, where large families with mixed blood were common and socially acceptable, but there was still an open prejudice against Indos in some circles. A contemporary writer remarked:

  I cannot bear the arrogance of the Dutch ladies and gentlemen towards the sinyos [Eurasian men classified as Europeans]. I have witnessed it for years in Batavia. You cannot imagine anything more heartless or conceited than the arrogance of the Hollanders vis-à-vis the colored. If a sinyo becomes even slightly prominent, the true Hollanders immediately close ranks to work against him. They find their greatest amusement in treasuring up the linguistic errors of the sinyos, so that at night on the front verandah they can crack all kinds of jokes at their expense.

  An apparently Indo woman, whose youth, beauty, and husband’s position provoked jealousy and envy, would be subjected to pointed jibes and snubs. Gretha must have faced inquiring looks and catty remarks behind her back, even if her husband’s status offered her some protection. Fortunately, Gretha had an excellent command of the Dutch language and social graces that proclaimed her to be fully European, but she was too clever not to notice she was being constantly tested.

  The social discomfort she felt then was but a foretaste of what would happen when the MacLeods later moved to East Java and still later to Sumatra. As they relocated from the busy cosmopolitan capital to remote towns with smaller and smaller European communities, Gretha’s appearance would have drawn more and more comments and snubs. There was even a term for her precise skin coloring: kulit langsep, which refers to a native fruit of a pale pink-tan color. While such a complexion was much admired by Indonesians, it was seen in European society as an unmistakable sign of being a half-caste.

  Gretha’s coloring brought with it a set of expectations about her behavior and morals. Tineke Hellwig, in her study of the representations of women in the Dutch East Indies, wrote: “[Indos] had an image of being indolent, unreliable, oversubmissive or, on the other hand, incredibly reckless, and they all spoke poor Dutch and with a heavy accent. The women were known to be sensual, coquettish and seductive.”

  Gretha met these expectations in many ways. She was a woman practiced in flirting, who very much enjoyed male attention. Doubtless the two-to-one ratio of men to women in the Indies at that time suited her very well; she had plenty of admirers. Her languid, graceful style of moving, her seductive dark eyes and luxuriant hair, telegraphed her sexuality to any male in her presence. And her ability to attract men simply reinforced the stereotype that her looks won her; she was seen as a morally dangerous, selfish, and frivolous woman who enjoyed clothes and jewels.

  After six months in Ambarawa, on December 29, 1897, Rudolf was promoted to major and sent to Tumpang, a very good posting indeed. Gretha was a few months pregnant and very pleased at this improvement in their circumstances. Tumpang was on the outskirts of Malang, one of the most pleasant and beautiful hill towns in Java, high enough in altitude to be nicely cool and full of gracious colonial houses with beautiful gardens. Malang housed Fort Van Den Bosch and the First Reserve Battalion, of which Rudolf was in charge. A huge river, the Sungai Brantas, wound its way through the town and provided lovely views. The lower reaches of the nearby mountains, Gunung Bromo and Gunung Semeru, were the sites of rich coffee plantations, so there was a good-sized population of Europeans, both civilian and military. And there were proper shops, chic restaurants, and theatrical and musical performances, albeit sometimes a trifle amateurish. Here was a society in which Gretha hoped to shine as the first lady of the battalion.

  They lived in a lovely house with large, open rooms and a spacious verandah, front and back. There was room for Norman to walk and play under his babu’s watchful supervision in the garden, where Gretha promenaded to admire the whitewashed pots of flowers and the lush bushes and trees that the gardener nurtured. Rudolf gave her a lovely suite of furniture in blue and brown plush for her boudoir; he set up a masculine office in the house where he did most of his work. Sometimes in the evening they would stroll arm in arm, looking back with contentment on their house as the servants lit the lamps. Gretha enjoyed enormously being high in rank—a military wife assumed her husband’s rank—and more beautiful than the other wives.

  Military officers in the Dutch East Indies lived in colonial houses like this, with a spacious verandah front and rear filled with flower pots and casual furniture. This photo shows Dutch army physician Dr. Johan Kunst, his wife, Betty Meeter Kunst,
and their child, Fritjof, in 1902. The sign says that his medical office is at the rear. (Collectie KIT Tropenmuseum)

  On May 2, 1898, Gretha gave birth to her second child, a daughter named Jeanne Louise to honor the hated Tante Frida, whose real name was Louise. Probably because Gretha so disliked Tante Frida, the child was never called Jeanne or Louise. She was soon referred to only by the Indies nickname “Non,” which was a contraction of the Javanese word nonna, meaning “little miss.” Rudolf may have been disappointed that his wife had not produced another son and future soldier, like Norman, upon whom he doted, but he soon grew very fond of his dark-haired, dark-eyed daughter. By custom, another babu would have been promptly hired to look after Non.

  In September came several days of celebration to honor the crowning of Queen Wilhelmina at home in the Netherlands, some six months after her eighteenth birthday. There were races, a banquet, a gala ball, and—best of all—an amateur theatrical production of The Crusaders, a musical written by two young lieutenants in the battalion. Gretha shone in the starring role of the queen, to great applause and a favorable notice in the local newspaper. Rudolf had sent to Europe for expensive dresses for his wife, perhaps to emphasize that she was Dutch. During the dinners, parties, and dances that marked the celebrations, she was ravishingly beautiful in a yellow silk costume embroidered with camellias and an extremely low-cut gown in purple velvet, decorated with pearls. From the stage to the ballroom, Gretha’s performance was a triumph. She drew every man’s eye and lustful admiration, every woman’s envy. Rudolf’s pride at his lovely wife was spoiled by his jealousy and his fury at those who made remarks about Gretha’s skin color. His mood fluctuated wildly.

  European children in the Indies were cared for by devoted Indonesian babus. The subjects in this image are unknown. (Collectie KIT Tropenmuseum)

  Immediately after the celebrations, Gretha took the children and three servants and went to spend three weeks at a coffee plantation on the slopes of Gunung Semeru, the highest mountain on Java. To reach it, they took a train and then a carriage, up and up along winding roads. The last part of the ascent was so difficult that they were carried in tandus—sedan chairs or stretchers—by porters. The air at three thousand feet was bracing and clear, the scenery of Semeru and its brother, the active volcano Gunung Bromo, was breathtaking. At night the coolness of the air was delicious after the sultry heat of the lowlands. One night they were awakened by the deep, earth-shaking rumbling of Gunung Bromo, which coughed out flame-colored lava from time to time. Gretha found the sight magnificent but a bit frightening.

  In September of 1898, Margaretha made her stage debut in a play called The Crusaders, performed in Malang as part of the celebrations of Queen Wilhelmina’s coming-of-age. She caught every man’s eye in her low-cut purple velvet gown decorated with pearls. (Collection of the KITLV, Leiden, The Netherlands, #41797)

  There is no evidence about whether the trip to the coffee plantation was planned as a simple holiday or as a rest cure. Perhaps the children had been ill; European children often were in the Indies. Certainly Gretha had been in her glory during the coronation celebrations and obviously not ill at all. When Gretha and the children returned to Tumpang, the rainy season hit in full force. Every day the rain poured down in blinding sheets for several hours, battering the tin roofs and splattering mud everywhere. Everything inside the house was damp; the verandahs—such lovely places to sit and read or chat in the dry season—were slippery and dank. The furniture and clothes mildewed. Creeping and crawling insects of every description thrived and invaded the house. Tinker birds sang their infuriating song, shrieking ever higher and higher notes that grated on listener’s nerves—and then fell suddenly silent, which was even worse. It was impossible to go out without getting covered in mud and equally impossible to stay in. The brilliant tropical sun Gretha had come to love was replaced by overcast skies and a feeling of claustrophobic gloom.

  Rudolf was short-tempered and irritable. Perhaps he had been brooding on the admiring looks Gretha had received during the coronation celebrations; perhaps it was merely that the weather was putting him out of sorts as it did most people. The happiness Gretha and Rudolf had enjoyed in the earlier part of 1898 deteriorated into sharp quarrels, too much drinking, heavy spending, and suspicions of infidelity.

  Rudolf accused Gretha of cheating on him with the many men who admired her so openly. If his accusations were accurate, his anger at her lax moral standards was ironic. Most European men in the Indies—certainly all of the upper-class unmarried ones and many of the married ones, too—had nyais. Out-of-wedlock sex was everywhere. Even though nyais were kept more discreetly than formerly, Gretha soon learned to recognize them on the street by their mannerisms and gold jewelry, but most especially by their slippers and the characteristic color (white) of their kebayas. The kebaya was a long, lacy overblouse worn slightly open over a slip or camisole, the two sides fastened together with fine chains anchored to filigreed gold brooches. It was a comfortable and flattering garment, worn at home or on casual occasions by Javanese, Indo, and European women alike. To wear slippers and a white kebaya if you were a Javanese or Indo woman was to announce that you were a white man’s mistress.

  If she thought about the question, Gretha would have surmised that Rudolf had had a nyai before marrying her; he had certainly been no virgin when they met, and he had spent virtually his entire young manhood in the Indies. She was grateful to have been spared the humiliation experienced by many totok wives, who arrived in the Indies to be immediately confronted by her husband’s resentful “housekeeper” and their brood of mixed-race children.

  Rudolf acquitted himself well at Fort Van Den Bosch. On December 21, 1898, he was transferred to be head of the garrison battalion in Medan, Sumatra. Though Medan was a far less comfortable and civilized place for a European than Malang, to be garrison commander was a significant step up for Rudolf. From the moment of his arrival in Medan, he would be one of the most important men in the region. Sumatra had been the scene of his early military successes, and he hoped to repeat his triumphs there.

  The quarrels between Rudolf and Gretha, the slurs on her racial identity, the hypocrisy of the superficially proper Indies society, which was rife with illicit sex, weighed on Gretha. Late in 1898 or early in 1899, she wrote to her father and stepmother back in the Netherlands: “No, I have no more beautiful illusions about the Indies because if you really look at it, it is not a nice country. It has without doubt many good things but also many nasty ones. If I could I would come back tomorrow.”

  5

  The Fatal Move

  RUDOLF LEFT FOR MEDAN on March 17, 1899, on the S.S. Carpentier, going via Batavia. He took his horse, King, and his dog, Blackie, with him but left Gretha and the children behind in Tumpang. While Rudolf went ahead to find a new house for the family and start his command, Gretha was to see to auctioning off all of their household goods. It was considered thriftier to do this than to try to transport furnishings. Rudolf and Gretha had been quarreling ever since the coronation celebrations, so this arrangement provided a way to separate and let tempers cool.

  Arriving in Medan, Rudolf settled into a very different social milieu from that in cosmopolitan Malang. Medan was the only major city in the plantation region of Deli. A mixed group of Europeans—British, Belgians, Germans, Dutch—came to Deli with the intention of making a fortune and retiring back to Europe in a decade or so—a hope not often fulfilled. But in 1899 the Europeans in Medan (not counting enlisted men) numbered a mere 385 out of a total population of 12,984.

  The great majority of Europeans were men involved with the military, the plantations, or the civil service. Few men were married and there were very few European women and children. For example, in 1905 only 3.6 percent of the male civilians over the age of nineteen in Sumatra were married. The region had one of the lowest percentages of married men of any in the Dutch East Indies.

  One reason for this paucity of European families was the policie
s of the employers. Precise statistics on the percentage of married men in the military stationed in Sumatra in 1899 are not available, but it was at most 2 percent. Similarly, the major tobacco or rubber companies that ran plantations flatly refused to hire married men. Many prohibited their employees from marrying while in service, though occasionally plantation employees were allowed to marry after six years of service in Sumatra, if they could demonstrate financial solvency. The third major group of men in the province of eastern Sumatra, civil servants, had little or no chance to marry until they reached the highest ranks. As a result, the society was predominantly male and rather wild; drinking, gambling, prostitution, and concubinage thrived. Ironically, the social rules for the few European women who lived in eastern Sumatra were much stricter than those in Java. If the men were freer in their behavior, the women were more restricted in theirs.

  Racial barriers and distinctions were more strictly demarcated in this part of Sumatra than in Java, perhaps because of the overwhelming number of Indonesians relative to Europeans. Lily Clerkx, writing about European colonials in Deli, described the situation:

  The white group defended its privileges tooth and nail. Its position was strong because [it was] predicated on white group solidarity. Facing the Asians, the community always behaved as a closed group. Its organization was impeccable, and one acted in a disciplined way, army-like, including distinctive external features such as dress…. [The totok] was permitted to do nothing that might impair prestige and endanger the security of the group. An aggressive act of a single Asian towards a white person caused the entire group of whites to turn against the assailant, if necessary assisted by the police corps or the armed forces which were at their service.