DUTCH SQUADRON’S VISIT

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1930, Page 9

DUTCH SQUADRON’S VISIT

DUE AT WELLINGTON TO-MORROW SHIPS PAYING COURTESY CALL. By Telegraph.—Press Association. . Wellington, Last Night. Nearly 300 years after New Zealand was first placed on an ocean chart by the Dutch qavigator Abel Tasman the East Indies squadron of the Royal I Netherlands Navy is making a tour of .j Australia and New Zealand and is due at Wellington on . Friday morning. The present visit is in the nature of a courtesy call from tlolland, a token of (friendship that has existed between the two nations for centuries. The squadron comprises the cruiser Java, which is the flagship of RearAdmiral C. C. Kayser, commander-in-, chief of the squadron, and two destroyers, .the Evertsen and the Dd Ruyter. The Java has a displacement of nearly 8000 tons and has all the trimness of a. modern warship. The cruiser was designed in Germany and the two destroyers in England. In addition to Rear-Admiral Kayser the executive officers of the squadron will be Captain J. De Graaf, commander of the Java, Lieut.-Commander (firstclass) A. C. Van Der Sand© T ' yoste, commander of the Evertsen, and Lieut.Commander (first-class) J. Van Leeuwen, commander of the De Ruyter.. Commander P. Post Uiterweer is the chief staff officer. ' - Of the 474 ratings . in . the flagship more than 200 are Javenese or boys from Am'boina. The natives receive' half the amount of the pay of the Dutch sailors, but many of them have gained the rank of petty officers. All the officers speak English, for it is one of the qualifications of officers of the Netherlands Navy that they must learn 'English, French, German and Spanish. The squadron will be at Wellington from 8 a.m. on Friday, when a salute will be fired-off Point Jerningham by the flagship, until Tuesday, when the ships will leave for Auckland. They leave Auckland for Sourabaya via Brisbane.