NEED FOR FLEET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23413, 1 August 1939, Page 12

NEED FOR FLEET

NETHERLANDS INDIES •THE HAGUE CRITICISED NO BUDGET PROVISION [FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT] SINGAPORE, July 18 "The people of the Netherlands East Indies feel very ashamed that the Government at the Hague has not the courage and initiative to build a big licet, but leaves 'them sheltering under the protection of Singapore and the British Navy," Mr. H. C. Zentgraaf. editor of the Java Bode, leading Batavia newspaper, said in an interview here.

During his recent visit to the Netherlands East. Indies, Vice-Admiral J. Decoux, Commander-in-Chief of French Naval Forces in the Far East, welcomed the proposal to expand the Netherlands naval force in the Far East by the building of three or four 36-knot 25,000-ton battleships, with nine 11-inch guns. In an interview Vice-Admiral Decoux said: "If Holland built such ships there would he a better balance of power in this part of the Pacific." .Air. Zentgraaf said it was certain that the Minister" of Finance would lose his post, as the Budget in Holland made no provision for the building of battleships for the Indies and the extension of-social services. "The spirit of imperialism in Holland is not the same as in the Indies," he pointed out. "Here we see a big danger for us in the ambition• of .the Japanese to advance stendilv southward."