TROUBLE ON SHIP

Evening Star, Issue 25632, 5 November 1945, Page 5

TROUBLE ON SHIP

INDONESIANS FROM AUSTRALIA REFUSAL TO GO ASHORE BATAVIA, November 4. Trouble has accompanied 1,400 Indonesians who have been returned from Australia in the Esperance Bay. The men say the ship called unexpectedly at Koepang, where an attempt was made to put 40 of their number ashore, reports the Associated Press correspondent. .The passengers then declared that if any were disembarked all would go ashore in a body, so the voyage was resumed to Java. The ship arrived at Batavia yesterday, and disembarkation had begun when the passengers learned that 19 had been arrested and were being detained on board. As a result 800 of the remainder refused to leave, and are still on bo,ard. The ship is lying in the harbour, six miles offshore. Those Indonesians on shore have been temporarily placed in camp by the Republican Cabinet, which is holding meetings this afternoon to decide the course of action. The passengers were told at Koepang that the order for disembarkation was given by the Australian Government as the result of an agreement with Admiral Lord Louis (Mountbatten, who is in control of the Netherlands East Indies territory. No reason was advanced Some of those in the party to be put ashore have been exiled from Java by the' Dutch Government for political activities At least three of them have not seen their native country for 17 years. The leaders say that by the agreement with the Australian Government, all the ship's passengers were to have been brought in a British or an Australian, not a Dutch ship, to Java, where they were to be handed over to the Indonesian, not the Dutch, Government. Tf the situation in Java made it impossible to land them in Java, they were to be put on British territory. A representative of the Australian Government, and, if possible, of the Australian labour unions, was to accompany them.