REPUBLICAN CHARGE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22416, 25 August 1947, Page 5

REPUBLICAN CHARGE

BUGIS AIRFIELD

BATTLE FOR TENGKOL (N.Z.P.A. —Reuter—Copyright.) (11.30 a.m.) BATAVIA, Aug. 24. Bugis airfield, near Malang, the onetime seat of the Republican Provisional Parliament, has been occupied by the Dutch, according to a Republican broadcast tonight from Jogjakarta. The Republicans said the airfield was attacked by a battalion of troops, four tanks and two planes from two directions.

Fighting for the Tengkol airfield, four miles north of Bugis, is said to be continuing. Numerous other clashes between Republican and Dutch troops is also reported. The Dutch planes are incessantly reconnoitring Kediri, the bigeest town in East Java remaining in Republican hands.

In a broadcast tonight, LieutenantGeneral Urip, Republican Chief of Staff, urged the Indonesians in the occupied areas to continue to defend their freedom. Government Delays Statement

The Dutch Cabinet decided to cancel the statement on Indonesia which the Government was to have made on August 26, says Reuter’s correspondent at The Hague. Authoritative sources interpret the concellation of the statement as a postponement of the decision on the future action in Indonesia, pending the Security Council's ruling on the Indonesian situation.

The correspondent says that the Prime Minister, Mr. C. R. Attlee, sent a message to the Republican Prime Minister, Dr. Sjarifuddin, staling that Britain would continue to support attempts to restore peace in Indonesia. A British Foreign Office official said that Holland had asked Britain to permit the Consul-General in Batavia, Mr. J. M. Mitcheson, to prepare and possibly submit to the United Nations' Security Council a personal report on recent happenings since the cease fire order in Indonesia. Dutch Plight Serious

A Batavia message states the Republican Vice-Premier, Dr. A. K. Gani, claimed there was now more Indonesian resistance to Dutch aggression in tlie occupied areas than against the army s advances during the “police action. The Netherlands’ economic position in Indonesia was worse than before the “police action” and rapidly becoming chaotic. „ , , , . Dr. Gani claimed that the Dutch had jumped from the frying pan into the fire with the “police action” because, first, the army still only occupied the big towns and had made few plantations safe for the return of the owners: secondly, the scorched earth policy had deprived the Dutch of rich resources of the occupied territories, and consequently they were unable to maintain their army or build up foreign- currency reserves for rehabilitation expenditure. These were the reasons why there was talk of the Dutch Army pushing on to Jogjakarta to crush the heart of the Republic and literally exterminate nationalism. Casualties Mounting The Netherlands casualties for the three weeks of the cease fire order now exceed the killed and wounded during the open hostilities of the “police action” period, states a Dutch communique. The casualties since the cease-fire reached a total of 259 compared with 252 in the “police action.” After visiting the Indonesian battlefronts, the American historian, Mr. Lawrence Griswold, states that, in his opinion, 90 per cent of the people prefer Dutch rule to domination by fanatical Mohammedans of Jogjakarta's Javanese and Sumatran politicians. Uprooted, deprived of clothing and food by the Japanese invaders, the people have been further terrified by the Indonesian Army in Central Java which, trained by the Japanese to fight the returning Occidentals, learned only too well the Japanese technique of terror and rapine.