FIRM BUT JUST

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19626, 21 October 1933, Page 19

FIRM BUT JUST

DUTCH RULE IN JAVA A COLONY FOR AGITATORS Dutch methods of dealing with Communism in their great East Indian empire, or, in fact, with any kind of agitation deemed “politically dangerous,” are quiet and secretive—but ruthless, says the “San Francisco Chronicle.” The Dutch, who describe their colonisation policy as “just, but firm,” do not make the mistake of which the French are repeatedly guilty in Indo-China—public executions of agitators staged with much acclaim and display. But they achieve the same purpose in quite as effective a fashion by exiling "public enemies” of whatever race, colour, or creed to the mountains of the interior of wild New Guinea, No one knows what happens to them there. The only thing certain is that they never come back. This has lately been brought to the world's attention through the extraordinary mutiny on the Dutch man-of-war that was seized at Batavia by her Malay crew and taken w-andering about the islands until forced to surrender by bombardment from aeroplanes. A score of the supposed ringleaders were imprisoned after her capture, but there was no public trial and nothing further has been heard of any of them. It was officially stated that there were to be executions, but as far as is known there have been none. That most or all of the accused are now languishing in the "Communist Colony" in the heart of the mast savage and least-known region remaining on the globe is quite well understood. The Dutch rule their islands, which together include a land area almost half as large as the United States, with what has often been described as “an iron hand,” although “firmness, with justice,” is their own version. There is no doubt about the firmness, and this has filled the islands, especially Java, with its more than 30,000,000 of close-massed Malays and Chinese, with Communistic agitators during the last ten or twelve years. Frequent Outbreaks. Not many of these are white, but hundreds of them are well-educated Chinese, some direct Soviet agents from Moscow. Their propaganda has resulted in frequent outbreaks and the predecessor of the present GovernorGeneral was recalled and brought home because of their alarming increase and his presumed inability to check them. The present official, who lives in magnificent state in a palace in the heart of the worldfamed Buitenzorg Botanical Gardens near Batavia, has been more “firm,” and in the view of the restive element considered less “just." Under his administration the “Communist Colony" has grown apace, and the mutineers in wffiat was perhaps the strangest act of its kind since the mutiny of the Bounty in the South Seas are the latest to take up an enforced residence in wild New Guinea. This island Is the second largest in the world, and more than half of it belangs to Holland. That half is practically unexplored and little Is known of it behind the fringe of trading outposts along part of the coast. But soon after the w 7 ar a way was cut through the jungle to the high mountains of the interior, some of whose peaks tower more than 15,000 ft, and are covered with never—melting snow. While lads from Holland held back the cannibals and head-hunters with ma-chine-guns, Chinese labourers hacked a path hundreds of miles into the steaming forest as far as the foothills of the great peaks. The Pioneers. Here was established the “colony,” and in the prisons of Batavia and Surabaya were already waiting its pioneers. With little but the absolute necessities and the roughest of habitations to house them, they were put down in a spot that is as remote from the world as any European Power in all its far-flung colonies would be able to find. “Agitate to your heart's content now,” they were told, “and much joy may you get out of it.” Escape was impossible, nor were stockades or guards needed; for on every side was the jungle with its savage beasts and reptiles and vermin and its even more savage men. To reach the coast was a thing compared to which escape from France's Devil's Island is child's play. A few who tried it were in the hands of the head-hunters before they were more than out of sight of their fellows, and their dried heads to-day grace the jungle hut of some cannibal chief. The rest are in a prison from which there is no emergence, as forgotten by the world as some unfortunate in a dungeon of the Middle Ages. The advantage of the Dutch method, from their point of view at least, Is its absence of all publicity. The limelight focussed upon the execution system and its maddening effect upon the friends of the victims has the result merely of spreading the agitation it is designed to check. The Dutch understand this, and so they have developed an undercover method of detection and punishment of Communistic activities that immediately separates the detected from his friends and the world and so from any possibility of turning his "martyrdom" to advantage as propaganda. “Have Grown Kit'll.” But it Is admitted that Java is full of agitators. One of the most drastic restrictions of Dutch rule is the refusal to permit any Malay to speak Dutch. It is not taught in the schools, as French is taught in French possessions, English in the British colonies, and American in the Philippine schools, and even Portuguese in the schools of Macao. The Dutch position is that the native is not fit to speak the language of his overlords. Yet socially there is a singular absence of “lines,” caste, or otherwise, in the Dutch East. Marriage with Malay women, especially with those of the higher ranks, is a common thing, and every Dutch steamer to and from the Orient has among its passengers several officials or planters or merchants travelling with their Javanese wives, nor is any eye cast askance upon these at home in Holland. And yet, as any Dutch official In Malaysia will tell you. "you Americans have coddled your Filipinos and the English dally with India, and where have you all got? We Dutch are firm but just, and we've grown rich out of our islands.