FIGHTING IN JAVA

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 December 1945, Page 10

FIGHTING IN JAVA

SITUATION NOT IMPROVED. BATAVIA, December 5. “The situation at Bandoeng has not improved,” says Reuter's correspondent in Java. “The extremists are carrying out an arson campaign in the northern sectors, instead of withdrawing from them in compliance with last week’s British ultimatum. Gurkhas with tanks and artillery attacked a building which the Indonesians set on fire before withdrawing. Fighting has again broken out at Ambarawa, the refugee camp centre.” “A conference of Allied military commanders, over which Admiral Lord Mountbatten will preside, at Singapore on Thursday, will discuss the problems of Java and IndoChina,” said the correspondent, of the Associated Press at Singapore. “The Chief of the Imperial General Staff (Lord Alanbrook) will be among the high-ranking officers present.” DUTCH AGGRESSIVE. BATAVIA, Dec. 5. General Christison. and General Vanmook and their staffs left for Singapore to-day to meet Lord Mountbatten in what he understood to be an “all-military” conference, touching on the future of the Netherlands Indies, says the Australian Associated Press corerspondent. The Dutch have discreetly let it be known they are going flat out for pacification of Java by force, as a preliminary to any further discussion with the Indonesians. They propose insisting that Dutch troops be permitted to enter Java to help to subdue the Indonesian extremists, taking the line that the British have not succeeded by using kid glove methods in carrying out the task of restoring law and order. Sjahrir’s reiteration of insistence on acknowledgment of Indonesia’s right to independence appears to have been read by the Dutch as the “same old attitude!” They are therefore believed to be taking the line that Sjahrir will never be in a position to talk freely until the Dutch realise Vanmook’s desire for a trouble-free zone, which he now presumably thinks can be brought about only by bloodletting. This conclusion finds ample support' in Dutch military circles, and among

the bulk of the former Dutch residents in Java, who freely express impatience with the British military policy. LORD ALANBROOKE, (Rec. 10.50 a.m.) LONDON, December 6. Lord Alanbrooke was given a detailed picture of the situation in Indonesia and Indo-China at a series of conferences at Singapore between British, Dutch and French commanders, reports the Associated Press. The result of the conferences is not announced, the officisl statement mere-

ly saying they were “exploratory.” It is understood that Lord Alanbrooke is reporting to London and making recommendations on ' Allied action-in troubles in colonial areas.