COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE

Evening Star, Issue 25619, 20 October 1945, Page 7

COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE

INDONESIAN DEMANDS DO NOT WANT TO BEND KNEE TO DUTCH QUEEN BATAVIA, October 18. Indonesians did not want to bend the knee to the Dutch Queen, and did not see why the Dutch tail should wag the Indonesian dog, said the Vicepresident cf the Soekarno regime, Dr Mohamed Hatta, at a Press conferonce. Ho added that the Filipinos, the Burmese, and the Malayans welcome the liberators of their countries because they knew they owed their liberation to the British and Americans, but the Indonesians owed nothing to the Dutch, whose army of 100,000 chucked up the sponge without a fight. He said the Nationalist Council rejected the Dutch proposal for' partnership in the Netherland Indies. Bloodshed would ensue for many years if Holland attempted to rule the area by armed force. The Dutch should not remain under the illusion that they could thwart the Indonesians' desire to remain independent. Dr van Mook was asking them to return to the old collar-and-chain days, although offering a brand new collar with chromium fittings and a heavily nickel-plated chain.

Dr Hatta, in a broadcast over Bandoeng radio, listed the Indonesian nationalist demands for Java. He gave five points: First, no more Dutch troops to be landed; secondly, all Dutch troops to leave Java; thirdly, the Dutch civil administration to remain inactive; fourthly, the present Administration to be recognised until the question is reviewed by a competent world authority; fifthly, the Allied army of occupation to confine itself to the recovery of prisoners and the disarming of the Japanese. " The Dutch brand of autonomy now offered to us will be acceptable to nobody. We seek the fulfilment of the principles of the Atlantic Charter," he concluded.