A DAILY TOLL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26034, 24 December 1945, Page 7

A DAILY TOLL

CONDITIONS IN JAVA COST OF LAW AND ORDER MORE BRITISH CASUALTIES (Rec. 9.10 p.m.) BATAVIA, Dec. 22. Allied tanks were active to-day at Kramat, wnere an intermittent battle has been raging for 36 hours. Five memDers of tne Royal Air Force were killed and two wounded when Indonesians in this area fired on a truck in which the victims were returning from a football match. The Indonesians are now sniping from tree-tops and from native huts. The Netherlands News Agency estimates that the maintenance of law and order in Java takes a daily toll of three or four killed.

One British officer and one Gurkha were killed during clearing operations in northern Bandoeng, where 17 Indonesians were taken prisoner. Twelve bodies were found lying in a rice field with throats cut. They are believed to be some of the 27 Eurasians whom the Indonesians abducted.

The British, supported by naval guns and artillery, cleared a troublesome area at Semarang bridge. Demolitions in Surabaya are holding up the British-Indian advance. The situa- 1 tion at Buitenzorg is quieter. Dr Sjahrir (the self-styled Indonesian Premier) has announced that the T.K.R. (the Indian peace preservation corps) has agreed to undertake the transfer of Japanese from the interior to British hands.’ “If the plan works out to British satisfaction,” he said, “the Indonesian Government is also prepared to guarantee the removal of Dutch internees to British areas for evacuation from Java.”