BAN ON DUTCH SHIPS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23318, 29 September 1945, Page 5

BAN ON DUTCH SHIPS

Watersiders Firm Demonstration Held By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Sept. 28. Some of the Dutch “mercy” ships declared black by wharf labourers did have arms and ammunition on board. This was stated by the Prime Minister (Mr J. B. Chifley) in the House of Representatives to-day. Ships carrying munitions and military personnel would be loaded by Dutchmen, he said. There had been no labour difficulties over the loading of the Dutch hospital ship. Mr Chifley assured tne House that the Government would see that mercy ships did not carry arms and ammunition. Mr Chifley said that the Minister of Immigration (Mr A. A. Calwell) was taking whatever steps he could under international law to have Indonesian seamen return to their ships and get cut of the country. Wharf labourers in Sydney and Brisbane to-day refused to work Dutch ships loading for the Netherlands East Indies. Large squads of police broke up a pro-Indoneslan demonstration in Sydney Park at lunch-time to-day. Thirty banners carried by the crowd bore such inscriptions as “Hands off our Allies, the Indonesians,” and “Down with Dutch Imperialism.” The police snatched the banners from the demonstrators and tore them up. Many of the demonstrators resisted the police and in the scuffle several were knocked to the ground. Many Indonesian seamen in uniform and civilian clothes were among the crowd. ' The Dutch authorities in Sydney said that they had given permission to wharf labourers to open and search any cases thought to contain arms, and added that no arms had or would be loaded into mercy ships. Watersiders’ Policy. The leaders of the Waterside Workers’ Federation said they did not intend, at least for the time b'eing, to alter their decision of declaring black Dutch ships suspected of carrying war materials for use by the Dutch against the Indonesian Republican Government.

The general secretary of the Federation, Mr H. Healy, said: “Our policy is not to load munitions or military stores. The question is. what are military stores? The Dutch authorities assured us that they did not have any war materials aboard, and we found tommy-guns in one of their mercy ships.” The Dutch authorities in Sydney said that they knew nothing of tommyguns alleged to have been found, and they asked the watersiders to produce evidence in support of their allegation. After endorsing the attitude of the Indonesian people “in their struggle for independence,” the New South Wales Trades and Labour Council last night sent a cable to Dr. H. V. Evatt Minister of External Affairs) asking him to raise the question at the Council of Foreign Ministers in London.