Alidius Warmoldus Lambertus Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer

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Alidius Warmoldus Lambertus Tjarda van Starkenborgh Stachouwer (born 7 March 1888, Groningen – died 16 August 1978, Wassenaar) was a Dutch lawyer, colonial statesman and administrator. He joined the diplomatic service in 1915. Prior to World War II, he was Queen's Commissioner in Groningen (1925-33) and envoy to Brussels (1933-6), but he is primarily noted for being the last Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (during World War II (1936-45)).

Although he was more reasonable and moderate than his predecessor de Jonge, Tjarda was accused of short-sightedness, when he made no serious attempt to engage moderate Indonesians in supporting efforts to prepare the Indies against the Japanese threat. During Tjarda’s term, the country declared independence as the Republic of Indonesia (17 August 1945).

When the Japanese took control of Jakarta, Tjarda was taken as a prisoner-of-war. The Japanese put him in a POW camp, separating him from his wife and his daughters, who were put into a different POW camp. After surviving three years in Japanese captivity (1942-45), he returned to the Netherlands with his family, refusing an offer from Queen Wilhelmina to continue as Governor-General because he felt that the Dutch government acted too weakly towards Indonesian freedom fighters. Instead, he became the Dutch Ambassador to France (1945-8) and was then the Dutch Representative to NATO (1950-6). After his retirement he settled a long-standing argument on canal links with Belgium in negotiations during 1963-6. With Gerbrandy and Beel, he formed an advisory committee on the Greet Hofmans affair.