Indonesians Appeal To Dock Workers To Halt Ship

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 August 1947, Page 7

Indonesians Appeal To Dock Workers To Halt Ship

(Rec. 1 p.m.) BATAVIA. July 31. The Jogjakarta radio tonight broadcast an appeal to the labourers and waterside workers at Suez, Aden, Colombo and Singapore “to take all the necessary steps in the shortest possible time” against the Dutch vessel Volendam, which left Rotterdam yesterday with troops and war material. , , A London message says that steel helmets, barbed-wire, .trucks and Bren gun parts were’ still being loaded into the Dutch ship Saparoea at Southampton today, as no official notification was received of the British ban yesterday on the sending of war supplies to the Dutch East Indies, says Reuter. The dockers’ protest against the loadine’ of the ship with these stores will be considered by the local branch of the union tonight. A representative of the shipping agents said that over three-quarters of the cargo was commercial goods for oil companies in New Guinea and Java.

Tonight authoritative sources in London said the ship was partly loaded before the British Government announced its policy on equipment for the Dutch Government. They added that further supplies have already been handed to the agent for the Dutch Government and are being loaded into the ship, but supplies which have not yet been handed over would be withheld. Reuter’s Bombay correspondent reports that dock workers staged an-ti-Dutch demonstrations and refused to unload the Dutch steamer Lombok, bound for Batavia from the United States. The shipping company said the ship was not carrying arms and ammunition, but was due to pick up .300 military trucks, which the Dutch Government bought in India. A trade union official said there would be a further demonstration tomorrow.