OFFICIAL DENIAL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21899, 18 December 1945, Page 3

OFFICIAL DENIAL

JAVA SHOOTING

COLONEL’S REMARKS

ELUCIDATION EFFORTS

(11 a.m.) NEW YORK, Dec. 17. An official denial was made in Batavia to-day that LieutenantColonel H. C. G. Harding, the British assistant provost marshall, said on November 24 that 60 Indonesian police were shot down “in cold blood” by Dutch and Ambonese troops in an attack on the Indonesian central police station at Batavia, as reported by the Associated Press. A British officer, Brigadier Mac Lean. in a letter to the Netherlands East Indies Government information service on December 12, said the statements attributed to Colonel Harding “were an entirely false distortion of the true facts.” He asserted that Colonel Harding. at a press conference, actually said that 63 members of the civil police, including some inspectors, were taken prisoner by Dutch mili'ary personnel on November 18 and on his (Colonel Harding’s) orders some were released. Colonel Harding on December 16 approved Brigadier Mac Lean s letter as presenting the facts but declined further comment.

Press Correspondent's Version

The Associated Press comments: “Mr. Ralph Morton, the Associated Press correspondent at Sydney said he wrote the story on November 24 from information supplied to him by Mr. Harry Plumridge. the Australian Associated Press correspondent, by Colonel Harding in an interview. Mr. Morton, who has now returned to Sydney following his Java assignment, said: ‘The notes were taken at an Interview with Colonel Harding and I am certain that Cdonel Harding made the statement. I felt that Colonel Harding was a competent and trusted authority and reported accordingly.’ Mr. Morton added that he took endless pains to examine the statements issued by all '•ides in the Java disturbances and in the instance mentioned, he personally investigated the story after and before it was despatched to the outside worid. ‘I heard and saw some of the shooting that took place near the Indonesian police station on November 18 and later I was shown a 21-day-oid baby lying wounded in an Indonesian hospital where an Indonesian doctor toid me that she was a victim of the police station shooting. At the same time, I was shown wounded Indonesian police officers.’ ”