INDONESIANS AND DUTCH

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25390, 13 January 1948, Page 8

INDONESIANS AND DUTCH

MORE MILITARY ACTION ' THOUGHT LIKELY VIEWS OF AUSTRALIAN EDITOR “The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, January 12. A forecast that Dutch forces would move in the next few weeks to occupy the part * Java remaining under control of the Indonesian Republican Government was made by Mr T. J. Gurr, editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers. Ltd.,Sydney, who has arrived from Australia by flying-boat. A New Zealander who went to Australia when he was young, Mr Gurr recently revisited Indonesia, where he spent some time as a member of the Australian press delegation which was invited there by the Dutch authorities in 1941. The Netherlands East Indies were probably the richest and most fertile islands in the world, and were strategically of first importance to Australia and New Zealand, said Mr Gurr. It should be remembered that the capital, Batavia, was closer to Perth than Perth was to Sydney. He strongly criticised the action of Australian waterside workers in refusing to load Dutch ships, and estimated that because of their attitude Australia had already lost £10.000.000 in trade which had fallen to the United States. When the Dutch forces started what they called “police action” last August they won back in two or three weeks without opposition two-thirds of Java from the Republican forces, he continued. In five more days th«? Dutch would have captured Jogjakarta, the seat of the Republican Government, and the revolution would have been all over, but the United Nations Security Council, through the action of the Australian Government, issued “cease fire” orders. Since then, the Dutch and Republican forces had been poised on the ‘‘Van Mook line” staring at each other. Sandbags and Road Blocks “Early in December I paid a visit to this line,” said Mr Gurr. “It made one sad to see the sandbags -and road blocks I had seen elsewhere in 1940. “The Second World War has not ended. It is going on in Java right at our front door. I think that in the next few weeks the Dutch wlil probably take over a third of the country still in the hands of Dr. Soerkarno’s fantastic Republic. “There would be a ‘howl’ from United Nations, the Australian Government, and in particular from the Australian waterside workers, who, ever since the Indonesian revolution broke out, had refused to load Dutch ships, he added. Holland had lost nearly all her fleet in the Java Sea battle, and most of her Air Force at Singapore in defence of Australia, but for two years the Government had allowed “gallant” waterside workers to dictate the foreign policy of Australia. Dr. H. V. Evatt, the Minister of External Affairs, who had been hailed at United Nations as the champion of.

small natoins. seemed to forget that Holland was also a small nation. “We have lost at least £10.000.000 already in trade with the Dutch. We have seen their ships lying at anchor in our harbours, and America is grabbing all our business. But the Dutch have long memories, and we can kiss that trade good-bye for probably a generation. Whom have we got to blame? Some gentlemen on the waterfront whose union is officered by members of the Communist Party. Communists are small in numbers, but they always get into key positions and know how to strike. Our Government has stood for it. That is just one of the things that is making the Labour Government of Australia more unpopular every month with the people.