REPRISALS TAKEN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 45, 3 December 1945, Page 3

REPRISALS TAKEN

EXTREMISTS IN BANDOENG ATTACKS ON CONVOYS (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright.) BATAVIA, Dec. 1. Indonesian extremists are taking reprisals against Europeans in Southern Bandoeng, although Indonesian troops have carried out a partial evacuation of the northern part of ’the town in compliance with the British Commander’s terms, says a British statement. Large crowds of Indonesians, armed with mortars and machine-guns, attacked 600 Rapwi personnel, but Indian troops beat them off with heavy losses. British naval craft shelled Indonesian positions outside Sourabaya. A Mosquito, which had been giving air cover to a large food convoy rushing supplies from Batavia to Bandoeng, crashed beside the road on the return journey. Both members of the crew were killed. The convoy reached Bandoeng safely. The lorries are not returning.

A Japanese battery under British command equipped with Krupp guns is now shelling Indonesian positions at Bandoeng, says a British statement. Japanese tanks are also helping Gurkhas to defend 50,000 Dutch and Eurasian refugees. More than 2000 Dutch women and children have been freed from internment camps. Convoys are still meeting opposition en route to Bandoeng. One had five casualties when held up by a road block. British military police arrested the Japanese Gestapo chief at Batavia who was responsible for killing many Europeans, and Indonesians. The Netherlands News Agency reported that he will probably be treated as a waxcriminal. The naked bodies, possibly of four Englishmen and 18 Indian soldiers, believed to be survivors of the Dakota crash on October 23, were found in one shallow grave at the village of Bekassi, 12 miles east of Batavia. An Indonesian woman led British searchers to the burial spot. She said the men were led from their cells last Sunday and hacked to death, one by one, by about 50 Indonesians brandishing swords, knives and spears. The woman’s story implicated the Indonesian “General” Hadji Darib, who, she said, ordered the killing by telephone. Darib is known as the extremist leader of about 6000 fanatics. They are mostly youth animated by intense religious fanaticism. The woman, who was condemned to death by the Indonesians for marrying an Ambonese, said that 22 naked men were lodged at the gaol on the night of November 24 and beaten at intervals 'until the afternoon of November 25, when they were taken to the river individually and hacked to pieces. Next Move From Dutch

Political observers in Batavia believe that the next attempt to end the Java impasse may come from Holland, where an Intensely radical spirit born of experience under the German occupation is working toward greater liberalisation of colonial relationships than the Indonesians have yet been offered. It is suggested that the next few weeks may see changes in the staif administering Dutch policy in Java. The Lieutenant-Governor (Dr. Van Mook) indicated at a recent Press conference that the Dutch offer implied full Dominion status. Since then it has been hinted that the Dutch would be prepared to offer Java complete autonomy reserving .control of defence, overseas trade, and foreign affairs. The Indonesian Republican Premier states that the lowest price of Indonesian co-operation acceptable to ms followers in their present mood would be independence on the Eire model.