LULL IN EAST INDIES

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22201, 19 February 1942, Page 5

LULL IN EAST INDIES

Java Pushing Ahead With Defences Another Report Of Landing By Telegraph—Press Association—Copvrtghi (1 a.m.) LONDON, Feb. 18. While there is a temporary lull in the Netherlands East Indies, Java is pushing ahead with preparations to meet any attack that may come. A radio message from Shanghai said that Japanese troops had landed on the coast of Java. Allied aircraft have continued operations in southern Sumatra. A squadron of American fighters attacked an enemy occupied aerodrome and destroyed four fighters Without loss to themselves. A Batavia communique states that during the raid by Netherlands bombers on aerodromes at Palembang we shot down two Japanese fighters and also scored a direct hit on a transport, while a near hit and probably also one hit was scored on another transport. "Several places on the small Sunday Islands, between Java and Sumatra, have been bombed and machinegunned, Several persons were killed and several wounded, but there was relatively small damage to material.” According to a message from Batavia virtually no civilians have been evacuated from Java. From the 54-year-old Governor-General, Jonkheer Tjarda Van Starkenborch Stachouwer, and his wife and daughter down to every workaday citizen will stay at his post and every family will stay In its home. The Dutch attitude is “if We evacuate Europeans we must also evacuate Indonesians, of whom there are 47,000,000 in Java.” The Dutch Who have a reputation for humanltarism and efficiency as colonial administrators feel that they cannot let down their native charges in this crisis. The same spirit which moved Government officers to stay at their posts in the outer islands animates the Dutch here. The’ Japanese carried out several pamphlet raids over Macassar urging the natives to rise against the Dutch and picturing the Japanese as liberators. The natives gathered the pamphlets and handed them over to the Dutch authorities. Capture of Palembang To hamper the Japanese moving up the Moesi river in sampans and small craft to attack Palembang, the captain of a British steamer swung his ship round and sank it broadside in midstream. This statement was made by a Dutch woman refugee who lias just arrived from Palembang. She said: “At 9.30 a.m. on Saturday we were told that aircraft were approaching. I then saw everywhere white parachutes falling at the sides of the refineries and Dutch and British troops rushing to the aerodromes. Later in the streets I saw Tommies lying with guns behind barricades. At 3.15 p.m. I saw a glow in the sky and realised it was the beginning of the end of our precious oil. The fires brought a funny tight feeling to my throat. I went home to pack and saw the leading bank, telephone exchange, radio station and rubber factories in flames. Tire captain who sank his ship said, ‘You Dutch certainly can destroy.’ I drove to a village where I boarded a very long train to a South Sumatra port. It was packed with exhausted British soldiers fir torn and muddy uniforms caring for the heavily wounded. Tire spirits of all these boys was wonderful, in spite of defeat and the fact that many of them earlier fought in Singapore, not one was gloomy. They shared their food with us and did everything they could to help.”