DEFENCE OF BORNEO.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1937, Page 5

DEFENCE OF BORNEO.

HOLLAHD PREPARES. If thje oil fields of Dutch Borneo were: attacked, they would be strongly defended, with lio thought of leaving them to the mercy of an invader, stated the "Melbourne *Herald's" correspondent at Singapore recently. Commodore C. E. Helfrich, commanding Officer of the Netherlands India Squadron, in an interview on board his flagship Sumatra during a recent visit! to Singapore, said there had been too| much talk of Holland revising her defence policy with a view to relying on her own strength, and not depending on British defences in the East. At the same time a war might bring many changes. No one could tell to 'what extent peace-time conditions would still hold good, and the people of , the Netherlands Indies had to take this into account. In the past the Netherlands nation had spent little on defence, even when there was no' great base at Singapore. Now there wae a base, and at the same Holland was also pouring money into I time Holland was also pouring money I into the defences of her Eastern empire. In such vital places as the oilfields of Borneo there were strong defences, and in time of trouble these defences, would be used to the utmost. 'If in time of war Holland found Singapore useful, so would Britain find Sourabaya useful," the Commodore added. Dr. Eugene C. Perkins, 87 years old, who was accepted as a man throughout 12 years of medical practice at San Diego, California, was disclosed in death to be a woman. The death certificate, which first gave the sex as "male," was corrected to "female" after examination of the body. The physician's "wife" Mrs. Margaret Curren Perkins, died eix months previously.