DUTCH EAST INDIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19765, 12 October 1927, Page 13

DUTCH EAST INDIES.

EXECUTIONS OF COMMUNISTS. MURDERS IN LATE RISING. A. aud.N.Z. TORT DARWIN, Oct. 11. According to advices which have been received from Batavia, 16 natives have been hanged for murders committed in the course of the Communist rising in Java last year, and 20 others are to be hanged at Sumatra. The Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, Dr. de Graeff, has reprieved a number ol natives who had been previously condemned, but the popular outcry against this action prevented any further reprieves being granted.

The executions have had a marked effect on the political situation, which is now quiet.

There were serious Communist risings in Java in November, 1926. While a ball was in progress at the palace of the Gov-ernor-General in Batavia Communists attacked the prison. They were repulsed and the attempt failed. At Tangerang, near Batavia, where there were Communist risings in 1924, the rebels attacked the police barracks and were repulsed, and at Bandoeng the railway lines were cut. The district of West Java was known to bo a hotbed of Communism, and the natives were incited from Moscow. In other districts native chiefs were murdered, and also some policemen. Several hundred Communists were later arrested. At Laboean a fight occurred between the Dutch troops and the Communists and 25 rebels were killed and 29 taken prisoner.