NEW NETHERLANDS CONSUL

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24741, 5 December 1945, Page 8

NEW NETHERLANDS CONSUL

♦ VISIT TO CHRISTCHURCH

Visiting Christchurch to make arrangements connected with the scheme to bring to New Zealand for recuperation Dutch civilians evacuated from internment camps in Java is Dr. W. E. van Panhuys, nev Consul-Gene-ral for the Netherlands. He is accompanied by Mr van Holst Pellekaan, Netherlands Trade Commissioner for Australia and New Zealand, who is in charge of the evacuation scheme, and Lieutenant-Colonel van Tricht, a Netherlands Army medical officer. ’ Dr. van Panhuys said the evacuees who would stay in Canterbury would not arrive until after Christmas. They included those in better health, the sick being returned directly to Holland. Half were children, and the remainder women and men in more or less equal proportion. It was thought that they were in a condition to recover quickly. Information offices, a recreation centre, and further accommodation are among the matters being arranged by the party on this visit. Commenting briefly on the situation in Java. Dr. van Panhuys said; “We all admit the Indonesians must' have autonomy and perhaps’ eventual full independence, but the speed of that achievement will depend on their own capacity for it. The cleverer ones among them realise that.”