SITUATION IN JAVA

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24743, 7 December 1945, Page 5

SITUATION IN JAVA

MILITARY TALKS AT SINGAPORE

DUTCH DESIRE STRONGER MEASURES (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 11 p.m.) »LONDON, Dec. 6. In Java the British forces have extended their hold in Bandoeng. More British troops have landed at Sourabaya.

"The Allied commander in the Netherlands East Indies. LieutenantGeneral Sir Philip Christison) and the Dutch Lieutenant-Governor (Dr. van Mook) and their staffs left for Singapore to-day to meet Admiral Mountbatten in what is understood to be an 'all military' conference touching on the future of the Netherlands East Indies," says the Australian' Associated Press correspondent in Batavia. "The Dutch have descr*etly let it be known that they are going flat out for the pacification of Java by force as a preliminary to any further discussion with the Indonesians. They pronose insisting that Dutch troops be permitted to enter Java to .help to subdue the Indonesian extremists, taking the line that the British have not succeeded by using kid .glove methods of carrying out the task of restoring law and order.

The reiteration by the Indonesian Premier (Sutan Sjahrir) of his insistence on the acknowledgment of Indonesia s right to independence appears to have been read by the Dutch as the same old attitude.' They are therefore believed to be taking the line that Sutan Sjahrir will never be in a position to talk freely until the Dutch realise Dr. van Mbok's desire for a trouble-free zone, which he now presumably thinks can be brought about only by bloodletting. "This conclusion finds ample support in Dutch military circles and among the bulk of the former Dutch residents of Java, who freely express their impatience with British military policy."