INDEPENDENCE FOR JAVA

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24739, 3 December 1945, Page 5

INDEPENDENCE FOR JAVA

Attempts To End Impasse " MOVE BY DUTCH INDICATED (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) 1 P-" 1 -* ' BATAVIA, Dec. 2. 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 towards greater liberalisation of colonial relationships then the Indonesians have yet been offered. It is suggested that the next few weeks may see changes in the staff administering Dutch policy in 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 Prime Minister (Sutan Sjahrir) states that the lowest price of Indonesian co-oper-ation -acceptable to his followers in their present mood would be independence on the Eire model. Fighting in Bandoeng

Japanese tanks and artillery, under Allied orders, are helping to defend 50,000 Dutch and Eurasians in the Bandoeng area. Royal Air Force Thunderbolts and rocket-firing Mosquitoes to-day attacked targets in Bandoeng.

"Indonesian extremists • are taking reprisals against Europeans and Eurasians in southern Bandoeng, although Indonesian troops carried out a partial evacuation of the northern part of the town, in compliance with the British commander's terms," says a British statement. "A large crowd of Indonesians, armed with mortars and ma-chine-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 and the lorries are now returning. "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 have arrested the Japanese Gestapo chief in Batavia. who was responsible for killing many Europeans %nd Indonesians. The Netherlands News Agency reported that he would probably be tried as a war criminal. Bodies Found The naked bodies of possibly four Englishmen and 18 Indian solders believed to be survivors of the Dakota crash on November 23 were found in one shallow greve in Bekassi village, 12 miles east of Batavia. An Indonesian woman led British searchers to the burial spot. She said the men were led from the cells last Sunday and hacked to death one.by one by about 50 Indonesicns, 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 ere mostly youths animated by intense religious fanaticism. The woman, who was condemned to death by the Indonesians for marrying an Ambonese, said 22 naked men were lodged in goal on the night of November 24 and beaten at intervals until the afternoon of November 25, when they were taken to the river and- individually hacked to pieces.

JAPANESE WAR CRIMINALS

TRIAL BY ALLIED TRIBUNAL

NATIONS TO NOMINATE JUDGES

(Rec. 9 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 1. The chief of.counsel on the Japanese war crimes (Mr Joseph Keenan) said that an international tribunal would try at Tokyo at le2st 100 Japanese charged with precipitating a war of aggression between July, 1937, and Pearl Harbour, in violation of international law and treaty commitments. The United Nations would nominate the judges, who would be selected by General Mac Arthur.

Mr Keenan said that July, 1937, was the first sound tangible point of Japan's war of aggression. The Japanese charged with crimes after Pearl Harbour would face military courts. Mr Keenan said that it had not been determined whether the Emperor Hirohito would be tried.

In Manila General Yamashita told the Court that if the rituation permitted, he would punish subordinates who were guilty of atrocities to the fullest extent of military law. 4 He Edded that he had inferior troops, badly trained and disciplined, whom he lacked time to administer. Yamashita ended 16 hours in the witness box with a dramatic 45-minute oration, in which he categorically disclaimed responsibility for atrocities committed in the Philippines by 'his troops. He denied that he knew or had ever heard that Japanese troops killed 60,000 unarmed women and children. Colonel Hideo Disiharu, a Japanese witness for the prosecution, testified that he told Yamashita there were a large number of Filipino guerrillas in custody, and a military police officer said they would be killed, because there was not time left for trials. Yamashita nodded non-committally, whereupon 600 were loaded into trucks and taken to a cemetery, where they were shot without trial. The commission admitted into the evidence a written statement by Yamashita to the effect that a commending officer under Japanese army custom bears merely "administrative responsibility" if his subordinates commit offences against international law in spite of the commanding officer's best efforts to prevent them. However, he is criminally responsible if he condones or permits abuses. " The commission rejected Yamashita's plea of not guilty. AIRMAN'S EXECUTION JAPANESE OFFICER FOUND GUILTY (Rec. 8 p.m.) SYDNEY. Dec. 2. An Australian military court, at Moretai has fouond a Japanese captain, Tokyo Iwasa, guilty of having ordered the bayoneting of an Australian airman. The finding has to be confirmed by the Australian Governor-General (the Duke of Gloucester). Iwasa has been remanded for sentence. He is the first Japanese war criminal in the Pacific to be found guilty. The Australian airman was executed on Talaud Island (North Celebes) on March 23, 1945. Service Departments Dissolved. — Japan's Army and Navy Departments were dissolved to-day with the completion of demobilisation of the forces in the home islands.—Tokyo. Nov. 30. You Can Take It With You ' Don't let your week-end be spoil: by a cough or a cold. Take Baxters Lung Preserver with you .wherever you go. Sip "Baxters'" at t u - B rst sign of trouble. You can feel its soothing, penetrating properties doing you good Baxters Ltd., 602 Colombo St., Ch.Ch. —5