CIVILIANS IN JAVA

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24741, 5 December 1945, Page 7

CIVILIANS IN JAVA

Move To Hasten Evacuation

APPEAL by red CROSS (N.2. Press Association—Copyright) ®ec.Tl,pjn.) BATAVIA, Dec. 4. The Dutch Red Cross hopes to move 50,000 civilians to Australia of an estimated 200,000 it is likely to evacuate from the Netherlands East Indies. A Red Cross official said that the nerves of the civilians had reached breaking point. Hundreds would collapse mentally and attempt suicide unless the evacuation was hastened. The Red Cross had appealed to the United States for help. . It is understood that the LieutenantGovernor of the Netherlands East Indies (Dr. van Mook) is leaving Batavia on Wednesday for Holland, where he will report on the Indonesian situation to the home Government and make recommendations for future action in the East' Indies.

‘A conference . of Allied military C'-mmanders, over which Admiral Lord Mouni batten will preside, at Singapore on Thursday will discuss the problems of Java and Indochina,” says the Associated Press correspondent at Singapore. “The Chief of the Imperial General Staff (Lord Alanbrooke) will be among the highranking officers present.” . The British Ambassador at The Hague has been instructed to seek the views of the Dutch Government as soon as possible on the whole subject of the evacuation of civilians from Java. This was announced in the House of Commons by the Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Mr Hector McNeil),

■ Mr McNeil was replying to a question on what steps were being taken to meet the appeal by the Chairman of the Batavia Red Cross. He said that the appeal had not yet reached him, but he hsd received a copy of another appeal addressed to the Lieuten-ant-Governor (Dr. van Mook) on November 26 by members of women's camps in Batavia regarding the evacuation of women and children and the aged and sick from Java.

Mr McNeil added that it was not yet clear now many persons were involved. Meanwhile, the Government was urgently investigating certain possibilities relating to reception areas and shipping facilities. “The immediate danger is very large,” said Major Lloyd George. “A number of these women and children apparently are in the interior, and it is not a.question of getting them out of the country as much as getting them to a safe part under British protection. About 200,000 are in danger of being kidnapped and butchered. The Batavian Red Cross is concerned lest some terrible tragedies occur if immediate action is not taken."

Mr McNeil said that the difficulties were manifold, but the Government was seriously concerned with the project, and-it would not easily •be halted. Mr Harold Nicholson remarked that Britain as a whole Would firmly support any definite determined steps to rescue these people, and it would never forgive any half-heartedness or lack of decision.

Mr McNeil: There will be no halfheartedness. The Indonesian Prime Minister (Sutan Sjahrir) has expressed his regret to the Allied - Coxnmander-in-Chief (Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Christison) for the happenings that took place at Tjakung Bekasi and Ambarawa, which resulted from a misunderstanding between the occupation troops and the people. Thus are explained away the massacre of the crew and passengers of the crashed Dakota at Tjakung Bekasi and the shooting of women internees at Ambarawa.

Sutan Sjahrir said ,that the Black Buffaloes, who allegedly murdered the occupants >of the Dakota aircraft, are an offshoot of the Japanese Black Dragon Society. Indonesian extremists, attacked ,a British brigade headquarters , In. the Bandoeng area, but were beaten off after reinforcements had been brought up. Sniping continues in the city. It is officially announced that Indonesians locked 14 Europeans in a house in Bandoeng, and set fire to the building. All the occupants perished.

RELEASE OF MILITARY NEWS

BATAVIA CENSORSHIP CRITICISED

(Rec. 11.50 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 4. “The situation regarding the release of military news is becoming farcical;” says the Batavia correspondent of “The Times.” “The official statement issued yesterday was almost an exact replica of that of the previous day, “which was mostly Saturday’s news and some of it Friday’s." ... The correspondent adds that there is military censorship of the most vicious sort—censorship at the source. Nobody in the Army, from LieutenantGeneral Sir PbiliP Christison downwards, may communicate information to the press. Correspondents are notallowed to make independent inquiries. They are given a statement in the morning and allowed tb ask questions in the evening. Otherwise there is a news black-out. As far as can be ascertained, the press restrictions are imposed from London.

WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS

REQUEST BY GENERAL

YAMASHITA

PETITION TO SUPREME COURT

(Rec. 7.30 p.m.) MANILA, Dec. 3. General Yamashita has dispatched a petition to Washington by air mail asking the Supreme Court to issue a writ of Habeas Corpus requiring General Mac Arthur to produce him before the Supreme Court in Washington or one of its justices. Yamashita also sought the prohibition of his trial and requested, the Supreme Court to order his return to the status af. a war prisoner in conformity with the Geneva Convention. At his trial to-day Yamashita told the Court that the Japanese 35th Army Group had authority to try and execute prisoners of war and internees, and he was helpless to intervene. The Associated Press says the 35th Army Group operated east of Manila, where many of . the atrocities with which Yamashita is charged occurred.

Yamashita did not expect Singapore to surrender so soon. He told a correspondent of the Mutual Broadcasting System- that “it was by sheer luck that our entire forces were not annihilated in attempting to cross the Johore Straits. The British guns could have annihilated us. I expected them to wipe us out to the last man.” Yamashita added that- his table pounding and fist waving at the surrender parley arose’ from his efforts to make the interpreter understand what he was trying to tell Lieuten-ant-General A; E. Percival, G.0.C., Malaya.

ITALIAN CRISIS ENDS

' ROME. Dec. 4. Signor de Gasperi has formed a new Coalition Government ’ in which he is also Foreign Minister. Others include the Minister of the Interior (Signor Morandi), who is a Socialist, the Minister of Finance (Signor Brosio)| who is a Liberal, the Minister of Justice (Signor Togliatti), who is a Communist. and the Minister of War (Signor Lusau), who belongs to the Action Patty..