MADURA ISLAND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22404, 11 August 1947, Page 6

MADURA ISLAND

JAVANESE CLAIM VIOLATIONS OF TRUCE BATAVIA. Aug. 8 Heavy fighting on Madura Island is reported in a Republican report on the military situation broadcast tonight from Jogjakarta. >t is said the town of Pamekasan was occupied on August (i. on the second day after the cease-fire order, by Dutcn troops. Bangkalan. the capital of the island was also occupied. The people were resisting the Dutch. In a radio speech tonight, the Republican Premier. Dr. Sjarifuddin. appealed to the Indonesian patriots to co-operate closely with the Chinese population and to guard their property and lives. He said the Chinese understood that what some Indonesians had done was not the attitude of the whole Indonesian population. The Republican Government, he said condemned the action of irrespon sib’e elements. Dr. Sjarifuddin said he knew there were some Chinese in the Dutch Army and some people were incline the In donesians against Chinese, but he asked his own people not to tail tor the Dutcn trap to divide *iK? Chinese from the Indonesian population Destruction of Products

As a result of the Dutch failure to obey the Security Council’s cease-fhe order 20,000 tons of coffee had been rendered unconsumable in East Java and 10,000 tons of quinine bark and 30,000 tons of rubber had been destroyed by fire by the Republicans, said a Jogjakarta radio broadcast.. It added that the “scorched earth” policy would continue unless the Dutch ceased their sttseks The Netherlands forces have taken action since the cease-fire order against armed bands guilty of robbery, demolition and murder and maltreatment of Chinese, states a Dutch communique. ■ Six hundred Chinese were rescued south-west of Cheribon and an additional 600 who had been carried off by the Republican Army had been freed and brought back to Sumpiuh, in the middle of Java. Air reconnaissance showed that fires were burning on the Shell oilfields at Tjepo, but they had not assumed serious proportions. Since the cease-fire order the Dutch losses had been 11 killed, 27 wounded and one missing.