GRAVE DEVELOPMENT

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 January 1947, Page 5

GRAVE DEVELOPMENT

COMMENT ON TROUBLE AT PALEMBANG DUTCH ACCUSEJNDONESIANS (Rec. 12.15 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 6. “This is the gravest development since the signing of the truce on October 15 last," said the Indonesian Republican Minister, Aak Gani, after a one-day flying visit to Palembang, says the Associated Press Batavia correspondent. Gani said the Dutch had used Mitchell bombers, artillery, mortars, and destroyers, which shelled the city from the river. Most of the civilians had fled from Palembang. The Dutch, he added, had bombed a civilian evacuee’s camp. Indonesian labourers working on the rehabilitation of the Standard and Shell oil refineries had gone on strike in sympathy with their fellows in Palembang. The correspondent says that fires are still raging in Palembang. The Dutch and Indonesians yesterday agreed to cease fire pending a conference between the Indonesian and Dutch leaders at Batavia. The Dutch and Indonesians are at present .accusing each other of starting the trouble in Palembang. The Dutch destroyer Kortenaer sank an Indonesian naval vessel off Cheribon when an Indonesian convoy ignored a Dutch order to halt, says a Dutch communique. Two Indonesians were killed and 22 were taken prisoner. The communique claimed that the Indonesian use of naval forces was contrary to the Dutch-Indonesian truce agreement. The British United Press Batavia correspondent says Major-General van Vreeden, Netherlands East Indies Chief of Staff, and Aak Gani, the Republican Cabinet Minister have flown to Sumatra in an effort to reconcile the warring Dutcn and Indonesian forces at Palenbang. A Netherlands Army communique reports that the fighting has spread to Padang.