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Kiest Welter

Christianity — Monarchy — Loyalty. This Dutch election poster urges voters to “Choose Welter”, referring to the sometime Dutch government minister Charles Welter. The Netherlands was an Allied power during the Second World War, but, as the war drew to a close, much of the Dutch East Indies — the jewel in the Dutch imperial crown — was controlled by radical nationalist forces clamoring for independence. Great Britain, the United States, and Australia were reluctant to use their forces to reassert Dutch sovereignty over the East Indies and so, rather awkwardly, remnants of the defeated Japanese Imperial Army were often given the task.

As it became increasingly clear that Holland had neither the will nor the manpower to hold on to the Dutch East Indies, a pro-Indies reaction began amongst some in the Netherlands, among them was one Charles Welter. Having served as Minister for Colonial Affairs, Welter was intimately acquainted with the intricacies of the Dutch East Indies. The colony was home to over three-hundred ethnic groups, but the independence movement was essentially Javanese. Welter and the reluctant imperialists back in the Netherlands feared that granting immediate independence to Indonesia would result in an oppressive state in which the Javanese would dominate all others.

Welter and his supporters founded the Voorlopig Katholieke Comité van Actie, or “Provisional Catholic Action Committee”, which quickly evolved into the KNP, or Catholic National Party. The KNP split from the main Catholic People’s Party (KVP) to attract protest votes of those who thought Indonesian independence a betrayal of loyal East-Indies subjects as well as an irresponsible condoning of Javanese entho-supremacism.

The KNP failed to redirect the larger KVP’s policy, however, and Indonesia was granted independence. Many of the sceptics’ worst fears about Indonesian nationalism and expansionism were proved correct, but the Netherlands had to move on. The KNP, under pressure from the Dutch bishops, dissolved, and Welter returned to the KVP fold.

Published at 8:02 am on Monday 30 November 2009. Categories: Netherlands Politics Posters.
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