WON'T LOAD HER

Evening Star, Issue 25617, 18 October 1945, Page 4

WON'T LOAD HER

ALCINOUS STILL IDLE APPEAL BY NETHERLANDS CONSUL ALL CARGO FOR RELIEF. NOT WAR (P.A.) WELLINGTON. October 18. The watersiders still refuse to load any cargo on the Alcinous. They are meeting to-day to consider whether they will load ballast to allow her to leave the port. Mr Price, chairman of the Waterfront Commission, said he did not think the dispute came within the commission's province. Rather it was a diplomatic matter. He added that the dispute had been referred to the Government. It is understood that the Netherlands representatives will confer with Mr Nash to-day. An emphatic assurance was given today by the Netherlands Consul, M. Vigeverio, that no armaments were being shipped on the Alcinous, whose cargo the watersiders refused to handle owing to the Indonesian trouble. He stated that the Netherlands-Indies Government had not purchased, and did not intend to purchase any war equipment in New Zealand. The only goods on the _ ship .were for civilian relief, comprising exclusively medicines, medical equipment, food, : clothing, agricultural and household implements. Thase were intended for the Indonesians as well as other people in dire necessity. Most of the former prisoners of the Japanese were still in internment camps, and their plight was appalling. The desirability of an early settlement of the Alcinous trouble was emphasised. Relief for millions of Indonesians and between two and three hundred thousand Europeans and people of mixed

blood was being'delayed dangerously. Scores were dying every day. __