LANDED IN JAVA

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 79, 1 October 1945, Page 7

LANDED IN JAVA

BRITISH AND INDIAN FORCE

DISARMING OF JAPANESE (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

SINGAPORE, Sept. 29. British and Indian troops landed at Batavia, capital of the: Netherlands East Indies, this morning. The Allied commander in the Netherlands East Indies, Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Christison, who is to arrive at Batavia tomorrow, said that the only purpose in sending troops to Java was to rescue prisoners of war and internees and to disarm the Japanese. "We have no interest in their politics," he said. "The British and Indian troops will not become involved in internal politics." Dutch troops were not included in the landing forces, because the Indonesians stated that they would oppose the landing if there were any Dutch troops. General Christison said he intended to bring the Dutch and Indonesians together at a round-table conference, a course which the Dutch had hitherto refused. "The Dutch must make a statement, on the status of thep Netherlands East Indies," he said. "Something must happen at once." The senior Dutch representative, Mr. Van der Plas, 'was making strong and urgent demands to his Government. General Christison said that the Japanese troops in Java and Sumatra would/ be used to maintain law and order until the administration could be handed over to the Dutch. Dutch troops would not be brought in till the British were well established. If British troops policed these areas they would inevitably take sides. The British were going to avoid the use of internal communications. "I am not allowed to go into the interior, even in the interests of humanity," he said. There was plenty of food in Java, he said, but because of deterioration of the railways and road transport, distribution inside the country would be the responsibility of the Indonesian Government—the de facto Government of the moment. General Christison said that after the British occupation of Batavia, Surabaya, Medan, and Pedang by sea, a military administration would be set up through the Dutch civil affairs mission. The British were not disarming the.lndonesian forces. DUTCH TROOPS ON THE WAY. The Dutch Minister of War stated in a broadcast that about 4000 Dutch soldiers were at present going to the Dutch East Indies and about 27,000 would be dispatched in the next few months. Mr. Van der Plas, after conferring with Admiral Mountbatten in Singapore, forecast the gradual infiltration of more Allied troops in Java. He said he was unable to give a date for the arrival of the Netherlands East Indies Government at Batavia. The Royal Navy has.already taken over the Tanjong Priok dockyards. Soon all the British troops will be disembarked in Java. . They will motor to Batavia and take over the Japanese 'military headquarters and other strategic positions. * Three Dutch submarines have arrived at Tanjong Priok harbour. The correspondent of the New York "Herald Tribune" at Singapore says that General Christison's command at present includes all the Netherlands East Indies and that eventually his forces will extend eastwards to Borneo and New Guinea. •