NEW PREMIER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 271, 16 November 1945, Page 5

NEW PREMIER

TO ARRANGE ARMISTICE WITH BRITISH INDONESIANS ORDERED TO HAND OVER ARMS Recd. 6 p.m. Batavia, Nov. 14. Sutan Sjiahrir, the 36-year-old new Prime Minister of the Indonesian Republican Government, said he would shortly go to Sourabaya with Sjariffudin. Minister of Information, to arrange a cease fire and order all Indonesians to hand over their arms to the peace preservation corps, which he was reorganising, disciplining and reinforcing. Sjariffudin said to-day that a significant change under the new Government would be the democratisation of the nationalist movement. The new Government believed the development of the old colonial system into a new republican State could best be achieved through democratic processes. He added that a clear break had been made with all those associated with the Japanese regime.

A military spokesman at Allied headquarters said that operations for the orderly occupation of Sourabava were proceeding methodically. Despite occasional fanatical attacks on Allied troops by extremists, every precaution was being taken to minimise bloodshed and every opportunity was given to the civil population to evacuate dangerous areas. Unfortunately, the extremists had not taken advantage of a suggestion for the evacuation of women and children, many thousands of whom appear deliberately to have been abandoned in the area subsequently occupied by Allied troops. Only the minimum of force necessary to evict the extremists from their bunkers and strong points was being used, and it was s*Ul hoped it might be possible to complete the occupation without subjecting the city to a repetition of Saturday’s bombardment. This forbearance would necessarily slow down the occupation of the city.

INDIAN CREW STRIKES ON DUTCH SHIP

Reed. 11 p.m. Bombay. Nov. 15. Reuter's correspondent reports that 200 Indian members of the crew of the Dutch ship Tuba, bound .for Java, struck on the grounds that the ship was loaded with arms for British troops in Indonesia.

STUBBORN JIGHTING INDONESIANS LIMITING -BRITISH GAINS

Reed. 11 p.m. Batavia, Nov. 15. Indonesians, with the help of artillery and frequent counter-attacks, clung firmly to fortified positions east and west of the railway in Sourabaya, limiting the British and Indians to scant gains in the fifth day of fighting. The British continued to bomb some key Indonesian nositions.