BRITAIN AND EAST INDIES

Southland Times, Issue 24596, 19 November 1941, Page 5

BRITAIN AND EAST INDIES

REASON FOR NO PLEDGE OF AID HELP FROM AMERICA (Rec. 12.15 a.m.) BATAVIA, Nov. 18. A well-known Netherlands journalist, M. van Blankerstein, who is special London correspondent of the Batavia newspaper Asch Nieuwsblad, cables an explanation why the British Government is unwilling officially to pledge assistance to the Netherlands East Indies in case of a Japanese attack. , The correspondent says that in the event of England officially committing itself to the Netherlands East Indies it would automatically be attacked when the Netherlands East Indies were attacked. In that case United States help would not only concern the Netherlands East Indies, but also England, thus fortifying the argument of United States isolationists that the United States was forced to aid England all over the world. The United States, however, was as much interested in the Netherlands East Indies as England. Therefore, United States help was expected in case the Netherlands East Indies were attacked, which help would then not concern England directly. Aid to the Netherlands East Indies would then be based upon simultaneous United States and British action.

“That is why Britain prefers not being committed beforehand in a greater degree than the United States to the Netherlands East Indies,” states the correspondent. “Mr Churchill’s last statement on Anglo-American co-oper-ation in the Pacific is a consequence of this policy. Mr Churchill could only pledge assistance to the United States, although there is not the slightest doubt that the ABCD front would be an actual reality.”