REPORTS TO TOKIO

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20526, 9 April 1941, Page 3

REPORTS TO TOKIO

ALLEGED ESPIONAGE EVIDENCE IN BATAVIA BATAVIA, March 26. A Japanese trade agent in Batavia paid £25 a week for a series cl' secret reports to Tnkio, according to a Government statement in the East Indies Parliament. The principal in this drama was Douwes Dekker. win; was arrested in Hong Kong diming the 1514-10 war by the British Intelligence, and charged with attempting to ship arms from Mexico to British India and to organise a revolt. After being in gaol in Singapore. Dekker was extradited to America as a witness in the sensational San Francisco espionage trial in 1917-18, where the court labelled him “an international scoundrel." The Parliamentary report says that on January 11 police searched the house of M. M. H. Thamrin. a member of Parliament, who was noted for his strong nationalist views. The police found an economic report drawn up by Dekker for a Mr. Sato.

M. Thamrin died from malaria, it is reported, on January 11. but ii was established that Dekker was engaged by Sato, through Thamrin to write the reports. Dekker lias now been sent to a prison camp. The Parliamentary statement adds that the reports drawn up by Dekker were inaccurate. "If they cost £25 a week it may be assumed that they received attention in Tokio. The Japanese, however, were misinformed,” it says.