CONSUL’S REBUKE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21979, 25 March 1946, Page 4

CONSUL’S REBUKE

WATERSIDE UNION

VIEWS ON INDONESIA

••SINCERITY DOUBTED

(P.A.) WELLINGTON. March 28. "If the watersiders only realised how little such big expressions as ‘selfdetermination’ and ‘independence meant to 99 per cent, of the Indonesian people, they would not force the doubtful benefit of their sterile slogans on them,” said the Consul-General for the Netherlands, Dr. Van Panhuys, to-day, in a statement in reply to Mr. T. Hill, secretary of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Union.

Mr. Hill, he continued, had said that the New Zealand 'people would be interested to know what duty there could be for police on board a mercy ship. "None, of course,” replied the ConsulGeneral. “but this was not said and could not possibly be understood.”

Police Under Dutch

The Consul-General pointed out that according to agreements with General MacArthur and Admiral Mountbatten the civil administration in reoccupied territories of the Netherlands Indies was in charge of the Dutch, and that included police duties. So far 11 relief ships had left Australia for the Indies and cargoes had been distributed to the native population. where they were most needed, and part sent to internment camps, when these could be reached. This had always been the policy of the Dutch and had been undertaken under the auspices of the British command, mainly through Red Cross observers and oub licitv officers from Australia who id confirmed the existence of the appalling conditions and the need for help. Nevertheless, the reliability of such assurances was still being doubted, and continued suspicion existed as to the destination of the shipments. “Suspicions Unjustified”

Mr. Hill should realise, he continued, that trucks and motor cars were essential transportation supplies, and cement was used for the construction of floors in hospitals. Such suspicions were unjustified and indicated a lack of good faith.

Past and present actions of watersiders aroused doubt of their sincerity, pretending help for the Indonesians. Such doubt was particularly justified when it was realised that M. Kupers, a prominent Netherlands trade union leader, had implored Australian fellow workers by cable to dispatch every ship. It seemed as if the watersiders preferred to favour the political aims of a few thousand well-fed Japanesesponsored. armed, and paid terrorists and thereby sacrifice many millions of starving people who no longer received the rice which the Dutch Government used to procure in the four months between harvests, and who were now suffering from disease in consequence of a breakdown in Dutch health services.