MORE CLASHES IN BATAVIA

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23372, 1 December 1945, Page 5

MORE CLASHES IN BATAVIA

Sniping Continues All Day Indian Troops Landed By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—copyright (7.30 p.m.) BATAVIA, Nov. 29. More than a battalion of BritishIndian Gurkha troops, belonging to the 22nd Division, landed in Batavia to-day from a transport. The troops had been left behind in Madras when the Division embarked on the Malayan operation. They are now joining the parent unit, which arrived here two months ago. Street fighting, in which there were six casualties, broke out this afternoon between Dutch and Indonesian troops in Bandoeng, reports a British communique. The Indonesians again shelled repatriation camps at Ambarawa, killing eight and wounding 19 inmates. The Indonesians are landing reinforcements on Ambarawa Lake. An Indian patrol clashed with Indonesian extremists in the streets of Kramat, the trouble spot cn Batavia's southern outskirts, to-day. Some Ambonese troops assisted the Indians, but the intervention was unpopular. Indians and Indonesians sniped intermittently all day, but no casualties were reported. Relays of Thunderbolts to-day gave constant air cover to a hundred vehicle convoy carrying urgently needed food to 50,000 internees, refugees and their defenders in Bandoeng. Dakotas meanwhile flew in additional supplies of tinned foods as a precaution against a possible worsening of the situation. Rocket-carrying Mosquitoes covered a column of troops searching for traces of 25 occupants of a Dakota which last week crashed six miles from Batavia. It is now feared that all 25 were massacred. Shipping Immobilised A suggestion from the Australian Government to overcome the difficulty caused by the freezing of Dutch shipping in Australia is at present the subject of negotiations Involving the Commonwealth and Allied Command in the

Netherlands East Indies and the Dutch, says the Australian Associated Press correspondent. The Australian proposal is that five Dutch ships, which previously were destined to bring food and medial supplies from Australia to Java, should be exchanged for an equivalent tonnage of non-Dutch shinping from Australian waters, in which supplies might be carried without involving industrial difficulties. Dutch shins in return should be taken over temporarily on a Charter basis. A condition of the offer was to be that supplies should be made available to the people in Java in the greatest need, irrespective of race. Details of the offer Were communicated to the Indonesians pending Dutch acceptance to discover whether they Were nrepared to co-operate. The Indonr"'ans prnmntlv ennlauded the Idea, as did the Chief British sunply officer. saying that it might make a difference between disaster and salvation. Dutch officials here undertook to enter into negotiations, end the matter is now at th” stage where a Dutch reply Is awaited.