DUTCH CLEAN HOUSE

Southland Times, Issue 24153, 15 June 1940, Page 11

DUTCH CLEAN HOUSE

Quislings In The East Indies Go Swiftly To Gaol

AT NOON on May 10 news was received at Batavia that Germany had invaded Holland. By 2.30 p.m. every dangerous German living in Batavia had been arrested and later interned on Onrust Island in the harbour. They were collected in cars and in the municipal garbage carts, writes Hazel Heale in The Sydney Morning Herald.

All over Java and Sumatra and even in Bali the police were busy and Germans were removed to the various depots—all those from middle and east Java going to Ambarawa. Some 2500 Germans in the Netherlands East Indies have been arrested, and many Dutch traitors have been seized as well. These Dutchmen were members of the Dutch Nazi Socialist Party—N.S.B. for short —which numbered among its 1600 members no fewer than 160 Government officials. Sitting at breakfast on May 10 at the Hotel des Indes on the Molienvliet, so well-known to Australians, I noticed a German named Muller reading the green paper which was financed by German money, and which, together with its compatriot, “The Lucht,’ a paper printed at Soekalboemi, was disseminating pure Nazi propaganda. These papers were given away with the veritable pound of tea—or cheese. At lunch time this man was still there, writing a letter. Then a handsome officer 'of the N.E.I. army, revolver in holster, walked nonchalantly up the steps of the dining-room terrace and requested the German to accompany him to a waiting car. He went quietly, and it was not until some time later that his Dutch friends knew that they were at war with Germany.

Big Round-Up OTHERS went off from this hotel— Herr R. V. Drechsler who until the outbreak of war was in the service of the German Consulate in Sydney, Herr von Oertsen, of the Auto Union, Herr von Schenck, who came from Singapore at the outbreak of the war, Herr Otto Trenkmann, of a German woolbuying firm in Sydney. They left the hotel while the band was playing—the band which a little later was to lose

two of its members to the internment camp. At 2.30 I experienced a stirring moment, when the whole of the personnel of the largest newspaper office in Batavia listened to the announcement of war made by the GovernorGeneral. There were tears in many eyes, and anxious thoughts of friends and relations at home in far-away Holland. The National Anthem was sung and the Queen lustily cheered. There were three Germans working on the staff of the printing works, men highly proficient in the arts of rotogravure and colourtype. They were arrested at 7 p.m. just as they were putting on their coats to go home. I talked with the president of the Fatherlands Club, Heer Verboom, who is also a member of the Dutch Patriotic Party in the Volkstraad or “People’s Parliament.” The Dutch Patriotic Party frequently asks difficult questions in Parliament, questions which are not always answered. Last July this party endeavoured to draw the attention of the Governor-General to the fact that many foreigners held important positions under the Government. It was not until April of this year that, in reply to many questions, the Governor-General made an attempt to “give all the answers,” rolled into one. Was he afraid that had earlier action been taken it might have resulted in some outburst and violation of the jealousiy-guarded neutrality?

Key Positions THERE was, for example, the German who was in charge of the education of all young policemen in the N.E.1., and who was, no doubt, instructing them nicely in the graceful art of goosestepping. There was also a high official, a Hollander, with much power to use or abuse. Questions were asked in Parliament about these and other men, and .the Government found it necessary to give them a long holiday. There was also a gentleman in Bandoeng, a Fleming, who was condemned to death as a traitor to his own country during the last war, and who, on being pardoned, came to Java, joined the Government service, and worked up to the position of chief engineer in the Post, Telephones, and Telegraph Company—a positko -■ery useful to

the would-be saboteur. He was arrested. A German, who became a naturalized Hollander, was head of the printing office, and for years had been able to read every secret document printed by the Government. He now, in spite of his adopted nationality, has gone to prison. The Fatherlands Club drew the attention of the Government to people, Dutch and German, who, holding high positions here were known to be in touch with the Nazi Party of Germany. Their power to do mischief is ended. The Government has done its work efficiently. The German Club. or Deutsches Haus, on the Konigsplein, is empty; five cars still parked there bear witness to those who went in unsuspectingly, but came out on the arms of the police. No longer will the walls of that building echo the Horst Wessel song, nor the committee room whisper the secrets of the National Socialist Party.

Dutchmen Accused ALL radio stations have been guarded by the police so that no member of the N.S.B. might rush to the microphone to alarm an anxious public, with its seventy million coloured people. The Fatherlands Club has acquired many hundreds of new members; the phlegmatic Hollander is waking from his torpor imposed by neutrality. I am sorry for - those Dutchmen whose names are on the black list or engraved on the minds of the members of the Fatherlands Club, for if they are guilty of the smallest treachery woe betide them. In spite of ties of family, of trade and custom, the Hollander is stirred at last, and will give no quarter to his old friends and new enemy. The enemy from within has been scotched, and the sore will be thoroughly cauterized. The Dutch traitor who has tried to betray his country to the Nazi will have short shrift. The German Consulate is empty and deserted save for the police; the huge business house of Carl Schlieper is closed and sealed, and the business of that firm and of' all other German firms will go to their Dutch opponents. Tire German Club is empty; the office of the Dutch N.S.B. Party has smashed windows, and above a portrait of its leader in Holland is the slogan “Public Enemy No. 1,” while writ large across the window is the further caption, “Traitors to their own country, this place is closed because of the busting up of the whole show”—or words to that effect. Dr Mengert, their local leader, is now at Onrust Island, and it is doubtful whether he was given time to pack his black shirt so quick was his arrest. The winsome barmaid from a well-known night club has disappeared, we think to Onrust—they said that she mixed the drinks of the Britishers, young and old, on Saturday nights in the hope that she might hear State secrets.