Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, FEB. 20, 1939. THE NETHERLANDS FACTOR

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 70, 20 February 1939, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, FEB. 20, 1939. THE NETHERLANDS FACTOR

When, a few days ago at The Hague, the Netherlands Minister for the Colonies submitted a memorandum to the Second Chamber affirming that the cession of Dutch East Indies territory “had not even been the subject of discussion,’' the nation and the world received the only answer they are ever likely to obtain on that particular issue. Nothing is further from the mind of the Netherlands than the surrender of any of her tremendously rich colonies, and when early signs appeared on the horizon of a determined claim in colonial matters the first reaction of the Dutch was to weld more strongly than ever the naval and aerial defences of the region. As a well-inform-ed commentator has stated the position, without Holland the Indies would still be rich, whereas without the Indies Holland would be a poor and over-populated minor European State. A population estimated at 53,000,000 persons finds subsistence in this locality strategically situated at the corridor between the East and the West, the immense land area equalling that of England, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, and Switzerland combined. Like a link in a chain or the keystone of a structure, the Netherlands Indies to an immense degree hold the future of the Pacific in their keeping. British Malaya, the Indies, and the British sections of Borneo and New Guinea form one indivisible unit, and through that region the defences erected by both nations stand side by side. It has been regarded as an open secret that the base at Singapore was constructed on the assumption that, given continued friendship between the British Empire and the Netherlands, Siam and French Indo-China, no hostile air base could possibly exist nearer than Amoy or Swatow, in South China, or Formosa, to reach Singapore from either of which points would involve a return flight of more than 3000 miles, mainly over water. Yet no pact has been published as existing between the two nations underlining the facts of geography which make joint action in the event of trouble a foregone conclusion. Prompted by the turn of events in the Pacific, a question on defence co-opera-tion was put in the House of Commons early this month, but the

Foreign Under-Secretary stated that, beyond the normal interchanges of information oil technical points that take place between various Governments, “there had been no special conversations.” The curtain of secrecy is, for very good reasons, still not parted. Fabulously rich in natural wealth, the Indies in fact give the Dutch nation by far the greatest proportion of its substance. From their fertility are derived 82 per cent, of the world’s pepper, 78 per cent, of the world output of kapoc, 60 per cent, of its sisal, 18 per cent, each of tea and tin, 83 per cent, of its rubber, eight per cent, of its coffee, three per cent, of its oil, and no less than 97 per cent, of its total supplies of quinine. Every square yard that is at all adaptable to cultivation is pressed into service with results amazing to the visitor from more temperate regions. It is recorded that only four and a-half per cent, of the 44,000,000 inhabitants of Java live in towns, the overwhelming majority being field workers. Brought within two days of Australia by the fast Java Air Express, and within comfortable flying distance of Holland, the Netlierland Indies are no longer an isolated archipelago, but daily are assuming increased prominence. To guard their immense coastline by naval means alone would bo a task of practical impossibility, but the energy that has been so spectacularly infused into building an air organisation that is envied for its smooth operation has in large measure solved the problem. The giant machines that to-day link the islands with Europe and the South Pacific could to-morrow, if need be, constitute a formidable defence force. This factor, coupled with the obvious (if not vaunted) friendship with Britain, and the continued alertness that is so characteristic of Dutch administration, helps to maintain the integrity of an island empire ultimately in whose keeping is the welfare of thousands beyond its own borders.