REINFORCED BY AIR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 276, 22 November 1945, Page 5

REINFORCED BY AIR

BRITISH POSITIONS IN CENTRAL JAVA

SITUATION STILL TENSE

Recd. 11 p.m. Batavia, Nov. 21. British, positions in central Java, at Semarang, have been reinforced by air. Indian troops being conveyed from Sourabaya in Dakota transports. The situation throughout Ja\*a io reported to be very tense. There has been further trouble in Batavia. Twenty persons were killed or wounded in renewed widespread fighting in Batavia, reports an Associated Press correspondent. Men, women and children took cover in the Kocnigsplein, the central square, as the

sound of gunfire came from every direction. British, Dutch and Indonesian cars and trucks, bristling with •weapons, raced through the streets. British and Dutch hastily threw up road blocks.

British ground forces at Semarang are meeting slight resistance after a successful Thunderbolt attack which broke up an Indonesian attempt to capture British headquarters. Planes dropped leaflets, giving the people 90 minutes’ notice to leave the district before bombing began. The R.A.P.W.l..office at Semarang is reported to be in the hands ot Indonesian extremists.

Indian troops are also advancing toward Sourabaya naval base in the face of Indonesian artillery and mortar fire. The Aneta news agency says that Roman Catholic officials . have reported that Indonesian extremists executed nine Jesuits during the disorder in Smageland on November 1.