ACTION IN JACARTA TO STOP CLANDESTINE , ARMS TRAFFIC

Wanganui Chronicle, 21 November 1950, Page 5

ACTION IN JACARTA TO STOP CLANDESTINE , ARMS TRAFFIC

JACARTA, Nov. 20 (Recd. 11.40 pm) —The military command announced this afternoon that yesterday’s action was ordered to check the “clandestine traffic of arms” and the increase in criminality in Jacarta.

“Detainees will be examined at the earliest possible moment to determine their further detention or release,” said the announcment. Meanwhile Indonesian officials admitted that civilians were confined to their homes and all traffic suspended as a cloak’’ to prevent possible Communist demonstrations in connection with the reburial at Solo of the body of the former Communist Premier, Amir Sjarifuddin, and other executed leaders of the 1949 Madiun revolt.

Headquarters of Indonesia’s circulation bank, the Java Bank, were closed to the public today following the arrest of one of its directors, Mr R. Spiers, during a surprise city-wide swoop by troops and police yesterday in a search for illegal arms.

The bank announced that a military unit had arrested Mr Spiers without contacting the management, and added that all attempts to approach the authorities and point out that the arrest of one of its key employees could mean the closing of the bank today had proved fruitless. The annauncement said.' “Because it would not be in the interest of the relations between the authorities and the bank if the bank opened prior to further negotiations, it was decided to close the bank to the public today.”

Sources attached to the bank said privately that the closing of the bank was a protest against Mr Spiers’ arrest. The Java Bank is a Dutch-con-trolled private bank under contract to the Indonesian Government as a circulation bank. Informed sources said today that troops and police yesterday also searched the home of the economic adviser to the Dutch High Commissariat in Jacarta, Dr. Speekenbrink, who at present is in the Netherlands, and that other Dutchmen were arrested.