DUTCH PROGRAMME

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 151, 28 June 1945, Page 5

DUTCH PROGRAMME

First Task Liberation Of , East Indies STATE CONTROL AT HOME Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, June 27. The Dutch Government is determined to tackle as its first task the war against Japan and the liberation of the East Indies, declared the Prime Minister, M. Schermerhorn, broadcasting the first comprehensive outline of the policy of his new Government. The call-up for Services, and the training ana equipping of the Army, Air Force and Navy, will continue to determine a great many aspects of the people's lives.

M. Schermerhorn disclosed that Allied military authorities would hand over most of the administration of Holland to the civil authorities by September 1, after which they would maintain only a few troops for supplying the armies occupying Germany. The Dutch Government was adamant that Germany must either return or replace goods and machinery looted from Holland.

The Government planned to nationalise the Limburg coal mines, and would investigate whether State control was also necessary in other mines. It intended to organise industry in large, comprehensive units, in which workmen, the employers and the Government would be represented, which, with the approval of a higher authority, would make binding arrangements concerning social and economic affairs. The Prime Minister visualised farreaching change in education, in which general reorganisation would be made. He expressed his determination that the Netherlands would regain its former leading place in commercial air lines, and he promised a purge of Dutch Nazis, German collaborators and the Press, also "a purification of the police force." He concluded by announcing that the Government was hopeful of annexing portion of Germany, but realised that it must wait until the peace settlement.