LACK OF FORTHRIGHT POLICY

Southland Times, Issue 25794, 4 October 1945, Page 5

LACK OF FORTHRIGHT POLICY

Crazy Things Happening

lii Java

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, October 2. A tall, blond man in the uniform of the German Navy stood up in a muchpatronized Chinese restaurant in Batavia and, raising his glass of saki, cried in English: “Germany forever,” reports the Batavia correspondent of The Daily Mail. A group of Japaneseequipped Indonesian soldiers loudly applauded while embarrassed British, Dutch and American officers at other tables acted as though they had heard nothing. The correspondent adds: This is just, one of the crazy things that is being allowed to happen in Java for want of a strong, forthright policy from the occupying authorities, who happen to be English. Which ever way things are regarded one thing is certain, our Dutch Allies, whose underground movement was the most virile in Europe, are, being given a raw deal. The Japanese left behind them, and, indeed, are still nourishing, a legacy of hate and violence in the person of Dr Soekarno, who likes to think of himself as the Gandhi of south-east Asia.