Nov 21
MARIA HERTOGH AND her mother, Mrs A. P. Hertogh, sat within a few feet of each other for four hours in the Singapore High Court yesterday, but neither looked at the other.
It was the first day of the case which has aroused world-wide interest and which will determine whether the Dutch girl, Maria, is to return with her mother to Holland or stay in Malaya with her husband, Inche Mansoor Adabi and with her foster-mother, Che Aminah.
All the human hopes, the conflicting distress of mother, daughter and foster-mother, were veiled in fine legal points as Mr E D Shearn, appearing for Mr and Mrs Hertogh, began his case before Mr Justice Brown.
The affidavit of Mrs Hertogh stated that Maria was born at Tjimahi, Java, on March 24, 1937, and that she was a Dutch subject.
Her husband was then serving with the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army and was a Dutch subject. Maria was baptised on April 10, 1937.
On the Japanese occupation of Java in March 1942, her husband became a prisoner of war.
In the course of 1942, her mother, Mrs Hunter, who was at that time living with them, met an old acquaintance from Singapore, Aminah binte Mohamed who, to the best of their knowledge and belief, was the wife of a Mr Maroef from whom she had been divorced.
Mrs Maroef, who was childless herself, showed great interest in the Hertogh children and asked whether one of them could be allowed to stay with her, but this was refused.
Some time later, Mrs Hertogh's affidavit went on, on Dec 29, 1942, she yielded and allowed her third child, Maria, to go and stay with Che Aminah in Bandoeng for three days. Che Aminah had promised to bring the child back after three days.
When the child did not come back, Mrs Hertogh borrowed a bicycle to go and fetch the child, but on her way she was arrested by the Japanese and interned.
From there, she had smuggled a letter to her mother requesting her to send the children to her. When it was evident that Maria was not with them, she asked her mother to fetch her from Mrs Maroef's in Bandoeng. Her mother wrote and told her that Che Aminah had told her that she wanted to keep the child for two days more and that she herself would bring the child to the camp.
This never happened and Mrs Hertogh said she had been told by her mother that when she again went to Mrs Maroef's house she found the place empty and Mrs Maroef and the child away. During the whole of her internment, Mrs Hertogh said, she had not seen Maria.
She was released after the surrender and Che Aminah and Maria were not to be found, despite all endeavours made by her and her husband, and they were repatriated to Holland without Maria.
Eventually in September 1949 it was ascertained that Che Aminah was living in Kemaman in Trengganu and that Maria was with her.
Mrs Hertogh said that she did not give, nor did her husband authorise the giving of Maria to Che Aminah, to be adopted by her.
Nov 23
"THIS COURT HAS no jurisdiction to entertain a suit for the declaration of nullity of the marriage," Mr John Eber, counsel for Inche Mansoor Adabi, told Mr Justice Brown yesterday.
Mr Eber read the affidavit of Che Aminah which said that she entirely disagreed with the version given by Mrs Hertogh of how Maria came into her custody.
In 1942, Mrs Hertogh had suggested that as she (Che Aminah) had no children and as she had so many, she would like Che Aminah to have one of them.
Mrs Hertogh said that if Che Aminah took one of her children, she could treat her absolutely as her own child and take her whereever she went.
Mrs Hertogh told her that as far as her husband was concerned, she did not know whether he was alive or dead and in any case she would answer to him for having given the child to her.
Che Aminah said she told Mrs Hertogh that she would like to take Maria and bring her up in the Muslim faith. Mrs Hertogh replied that she was glad because she herself was brought up as a Muslim.
Some days later, Mrs Hertogh gave her Maria and she took her to her house. Soelwaldi, Mrs Hertogh's brother, gave her a certificate of adoption.
Mrs Hertogh and Che Aminah continued to visit each other frequently.
Sometime late in 1942 or the beginning of 1943, Maria was circumcised according to Mohammedan faith.
About the end of 1943 or the beginning of 1944, Mrs Hertogh went to Sourabaya to get a job and that was the last she saw of her until recently.
At no time during the three years after Maria came to her house had either Mrs Hertogh or her mother requested her to give Maria back or to cease treating her as her own child.
About the middle of 1947 after Maria had attained puberty, Che Aminah said she was present when she recited the verse from the Koran which is known as Kalima Shehadat. Any girl who had attained puberty and recited those words was a Mohammedan according to Mohammedan faith.
Che Aminah's affidavit said that she was born of a very respected Malay family in Kemaman and she was married to an Indonesian businessman named Inche Maroef for 14 years. She possessed adequate means to support Maria should she be given her custody.
If the marriage between Maria and Mansoor Adabi was declared null and void, she wished Maria to be given into her custody.
Dec 2
MR. JUSTICE BROWN will deliver judgement today in the High Court in the Maria Hertogh case. The hearing lasted five days and ended on Nov. 24.
Dec 3
A TENSE, CROWDED Singapore court yesterday heard Mr Justice Brown order the return of 13-year-old Maria Huberdina Hertogh to the custody of her mother, Mrs Adeline Hertogh.
In a 24-page judgement, which took 45 minutes to read, His Lordship characterised the marriage of Maria to school teacher Inche Mansoor Adabi on Aug 1 this year as "a manoeuvre designed to prejudice these proceedings".
His Lordship declared that the purported marriage was invalid.
Saying that he had no reason to disbelieve Maria's statement that she and Inche Adabi had been "mutually attracted" to each other, His Lordship said: "But it was just this 'attraction' which made this manoeuvre possible.
"And what is to be said of people who will allow an attraction, which is formed by a child of 13, for a man whom she has scarcely met, to be used as the basis of a manoeuvre which within the space of three days causes her to become his wife?
"From my observation of Che Aminah, I am unable to resist the impression that she was persuaded to agree to this discreditable manoeuvre by some other person, in whose mind the idea of it was conceived.
"It seems to me that in the present case, as the father has never abrogated his legal right or consented to his child embracing the Muslim faith, she cannot in law be regarded as a Mohammedan. I hold that the purported marriage is invalid.
"I now come to the final and most difficult question in this case of who is to have the custody of the child," said His Lordship.
"I am satisfied that it would not be to her interests to leave her in the custody of the third defendant (Mansoor Adabi).
"Except for the two visits to the York Hill Home, he first appeared on the scene as one of the parties to a discreditable manoeuvre, which resulted within three days in an invalid marriage with a child of 13.
"Apart from the fact that I am satisfied that it would not be in her interests to leave her in his custody, it seems to me that such a course would be entirely derogatory to the sanctity of Mohammedan marriage."
Referring to the father, Mr Hertogh, His Lordship said: "Whatever may be the truth of the events which occurred at the end of the year 1942, it is clear that he took no part in them. He was then a prisoner of war in the hands of the Japanese.
"And whether he was deprived of his child through the voluntary act of her mother or through the unscrupulous conduct of Che Aminah, it is clear that he was never consulted, has never at any time consented, and that no fault or blame, indifference or neglect, can be attached to him."
His Lordship then dwelt with the question of who was to have custody of the child and went on:
"As the child is 13 years of age, I thought it right to see her in my chambers and to satisfy myself concerning her wishes. I am satisfied that it is her desire to remain in this country and to continue in the Muslim faith.
"I am also satisfied that she has a real devotion for her foster-mother, Che Aminah.
"It is natural that she should now wish to remain in Malaya among people whom she knows. But who can say that she will have the same views some years hence, after her outlook has been enlarged and her contacts extended, in the life of her family to which she belongs?
"And can it be for her general well-being in life to deny her such experience and the opportunities that go with it, and to continue the unnatural separation from her father and mother and her family whom she has had no means of knowing since she was five years old?
Maria leaves foster-mother Aminah to stay in a convent before leaving for Holland with her mother, Adeline."Secondly, it is clear from the authorities that the father has a legal right to bring up his child in the way he thinks best for her welfare. "Upon what ground am I to deprive him of a right which the law gives him? And I am satisfied that if I refuse him the relief which he claims, I should be acting contrary to the established principles of the law which it is my duty to administer."
Dec 3
MARIA HERTOGH SLEPT last night in a room in the Girls' Home of the Convent of the Good Shepherd, in Thomson Road, Singapore. Maria's re-education will begin at the Home straight away.
Mrs A.P. Hertogh, Maria's mother, said yesterday that she was "exceedingly happy".
She added: "I am sure my husband and I and the other children will be able to make her feel at home in Holland in a very short time. She will feel strange at first, of course, but it will not be for long."
In his home in Kelantan House, Rowell Road, Inche Mansoor Adabi, depressed, said, "I cannot express in words what I feel but I know that Nadra will remain faithful to me."
In her new and temporary home in the Convent, Maria, red-eyed and still in her Malay costume, shook her brown head with despair and merely asked, "How is my foster-mother?"
Che Aminah, her foster-mother, since 1942, was in a collapsed state in Kelantan House.
She kept on crying for "Nadra".
Dec 4
MARIA BERTHA HERTOGH, whose separation from her parents and marriage made world headlines, is a little girl again.
Yesterday, in the Convent Girls' Home in Thomson Road, I saw a little girl in a short white dress, her brown hair in two plaits to her shoulders, running hand in hand with a friend.
"Bertha!" cried another girl. The girl with the pigtails turned round. It was Maria. Phyllis was Maria's first friend in her new life. On Saturday night, she sang her to sleep.
Dec 5
MARIA BERTHA HERTOGH has shown interest in photographs of her father, brothers and sisters, "and has already asked many questions about them", her mother, Mrs Adeline Hertogh, told me yesterday.
As a schoolgirl, she had her first piano and English lesson yesterday.
Mother St Columba, who is her piano teacher, said: "Bertha has a remarkably good ear for music."
I heard Bertha play the familiar tune "Chopsticks". She seemed self-possessed and engrossed with her new accomplishment, and she smiled swiftly and shyly as she looked up from the keyboard for approval.
Dec 14
MARIA AND HER mother, Adeline Hertogh, passed through Calcutta this afternoon on the way to Holland from Singapore. Armed police guarded the plane and strong security measures prevented reporters from entering.
Maria and her mother left Singapore secretly on Tuesday afternoon in a plane specially diverted from its normal route.
They are expected in Holland either today or tomorrow.
They were sent on Monday to St John's Island from the Girls' Home of the Convent of the Good Shepherd; and travelled to Kallang airport by launch.
They were taken from the flying boat jetty to the airport building under strong armed escort.
First published in 150 years of the Straits Times (July 15, 1845-1995)
Copyright © 1998 Singapore Press Holdings. All Rights Reserved.
