A letter arrived on the desk of Priangan Resident S.A Reitsma on January 15, 1923. Stamped secret, it had been sent by Dutch East Indies Governor General Dr Dirk Fock from Batavia. It contained a response to the question from Reitsma concerning a teaching permit request for Dr Ernest Franois Eugne Dekker. The request was to teach at an elementary school headed by H.E. Meyer Elenbaas, a Dutch lady and education activist in Bandung.

"For a person who