FROM RICHES TO RUIN

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22205, 24 February 1942, Page 5

FROM RICHES TO RUIN

Blow To Dutch Colonial Policy . (Rec. 7.22 p.m.) RUGBY, Feb. 22. A Dutchman broadcasting from London said the whole of the Dutch colonial policy had been to make the East Indies rich “not only for ourselves but just as much for the Indonesians. When these oil power stations, storage tanks and .docks were -completely destroyed the Dutch and Indonesians alike were sad, their whole livelihood having completely gone. Palembang can be compared with the Dneiper dam which the Russians destroyed. A few weeks have seen the destruction of centuries of endeavour.” The broadcaster recalled how tea, coffee, tobacco, cocoa, rubber and sugar plants were brought to Java and Sumatra from far and wide by Dutch colonists. "Petroleum and time might not have been found or might not have been won from the earth in such abundance without the enterprise, technical skill and energy of the white man. Those who call themselves the ‘have not nations’ but who could always have bought all they wanted at the same price as we ourselves had to pay, have spent milliards and milliards on tools of destruction. The Dutch possessions are the richest territories in the world, but the teeming millions of the Indies share in the possession. As the riches we created in Java developed so the Japanese grew in such numbers that we had to make a living space for them elsewhere. We decided to move many Javanese families to the outer islands, i t was probably a unique experiment In colonial administration. The results have been good. The people In the process of the development were being educated and we were very proud of our successful fight against tropical disease. We promoted and helped to keep alive their ancient arts and culture. Many farmers own their land and many are independent traders and growers of rubber. We felt a moral urge to make a nation of the Indonesians. that they should go forward with us and inseparably from us to a better future.”