Page 7 - Lambert Wackers
P. 7
He simultaneously received two important new assignments.
• Chef of Exploitation of the Atjeh Kota Radja steam tram,
• Director of the Kota Radja Government Ice Factory.
Kota Radja was the Dutch name for the Sultanate of Banda Atjeh.
It is on the very north point of Sumatra on the Strait of Malacca. The town was an ancient
multi-ethnic important strategic and mercantile trading hub. The people of the Atjeh
Sultanate fought a fierce guerilla war against Dutch supremacy (Atjeh War 1874-1904).
The "victory" by general van Heutz was bloody and limited. I understand that at the time
Lambert Wackers was put in charge of the management of the steam tram, the Dutch had
seized the Kraton of the Sultanate. Lambert became involved with overseeing the defensive
railroad system around Kota Radja.
40 km of defensive railroad surrounding Kota Radja
His other assignment
One can imagine how important the directorship of the Government Ice Factory was in the
tropics. Electrical refrigerators did not yet exist.
I remember watching the delivery of large ice bars at our home in Echt as a kid. A tall man
dressed in overall, a cloth over his right shoulder, and a heavy bar of ice on top of the fabric.
These bars were shoved in an insulated (non-electrical) cabinet in the kitchen.
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