BOLSHEVIST INTRIGUE

Evening Star, Issue 19464, 24 January 1927, Page 14

BOLSHEVIST INTRIGUE

THE REVOLUTION iH JAVA A SERIOUS SITUATION A graphic story of the Communist revolution in Java last month was told at Melbourne on December 31 by Mr W. Parson, a Dutchmen, who has been resident in tho Dutch East Indies for many years. Mr Parsons is the first Dutchman to reach Melbourne from Java since the rebellion. He said that the rising was most serious, and tho Government had been forced to take stern measures to suppress it. The “Red” influence had worked subtly, and gathered strength under he guiding hand of Bolshevist emissaries. _ _ Following tho rising in the imrd week in November, when thousands of natives at Batavia, carrying the red flag, look possession of telegraph offices, the hank, and file prison, the Dutch authorities found it necessary to call out troops and deport 200 of tho Communist. revolutionaries to Dutch Now Guinea.

Three of the ringleaders implicated in murders were sentenced to death, and terms ot imprisonment wore meted out to others. At Bantam the revolutionaries murdered a European railway official and a native official and his family. Casualties were heavy.

The trouble was particularly serious in Southern Bantam, at Laboean, and other towns. In the chief centres of Java the authorities did not realise the extent of Bolshevist intrigue until tho revolution broke. A Communist code was found on the night before tho outbreak, and tho Chief Justice was notified.

The origin of the rebellion was deepseated. Many years ago a number of malcontents were given the choice of being interned or quitting the country, and numbers went to Russia. They became inoculated with tho germ of Bolshevism, and later returned to the Dutch East Indies.

In some parts of the country, said Mr Parsons, the religious element entered into the unrest. Some of the natives wore white gowns, something Hite those used by Dervishes. Tho Dutch Government did not endeavor to. suppress tho nationalistic spirit in Java, but they were making every endeavor to check Communism. The'ignorance of a big proportion of the natives gave the Bolshevists fertile ground in which to scatter their seed. Education of the people would render the danger of revolt less likely, and tlie Dutch Government was not slow to see this. Efforts were being made to educate the people of Java. Singapore appeared to be a chief centre of Bolshevist influence and propaganda, although the Russian agents there came into conflict with British power. Much of the money and many of the arms furnished by the Bolshevists for the recent revolt came from Singapore. At the critical period the_ authorities experienced great difficulty in obtaining arms.

propaganda was being distributed intensively in the Dutch East Indies. Mr F. W. Bodeker, a Burmese merchant, who has returned to Melbourne from the Far East, said, in his opinion, Britain might grant a great measure of self-government to India, but she would not relinquish possession A her Indian Empire without a mighty struggle. The Bolshevist element, now so strong in the Dutch East Indies, was also dangerous in Afghanistan. Bolshevist propaganda filtered into India through Afghanistan. Fortunately the Gurkhas, in the north of India, were devotedly loyal to their officers and to Britain, and one Gurkha, was a match /or three Russians.