Valck reinterpreted the danger as stemming from planters’ brutality, not the Aceh War.

Evidence

Valck’s “common sense” is not that of others. His interpretation of “personal feuds” implicates and jeopardizes Deli’s European community at large. The danger is real, he asserts, but not because of the Aceh War: After all of the above, it need not be said that when it comes to retaliation no one is safe, even if one were surrounded by a complete battalion. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1195

Categorization

• XREF: Shows how the same events could be plugged into rival causal narratives (war vs. exploitation) depending on the official’s political position — core to the reader’s epistemic-anxiety thesis.