Goulburn Evening Post (NSW : 1940 - 1954), Monday 21 January 1946, page 2

Indonesians
INDONESIA The are not cap
self-government
able full of
yet, despite the sudden love
Time and againthe Jav for the Javanese on the part
aneseproblem of the Sydney wharfies,but
the eve of hasbeen
settlement,
but on some form of semi self-gov-
each time there was a slip crnment might emerge if the
between Javanesewere reasonable
the cup and the lip. and
The Dutch Parliament early the Dutch were all Van
surprise
last week created a Mooks. The presentposition
by over-riding
the Dutch Gov is that the British Command
through
ernment's plans, agreed upon is morethanhalfway
discussions securing
at long last after its task of the safety
with Dr. van Mook, who
is of Allied prisoners of war and
internees
one of the few big world in Java. One com
figures
the war has thrown up. petent Australian authority a
Van Mook now finds himself couple of days ago said that
on the spot, and it will not about one in seven of the
surprising
be if he is not 70,000 Japanesethere has
been disarmed by
knocked over little British.
by the the
men, and follow other big About 20,000 have voluntar
internment,
men into obscuritywho could ily gone into and
not be both greatand popu 40,000 have been interned in
lar. The new British Govern middle or East Java by the
Indonesians.
In West Java
effective
some kind of civil
administration

menthas seenits dutymore is being set up

clearlythath the Australian by the British. The major
Government
in relation
to the policy concerning the future
Indonesia
Javanese, of has not been de
but it has also had Australia,
snapping cided and the
at its heels those
most concernedof the white
who, knowing little about the nations,
circumstances is having nothing to
of Java, feel
say about it, except on the
they were most competentto wharves,where Mr. Chifley's
pass judgmenton affairs
policy is laid down. As an
there. quite clear yet
It is not
despatch outcome of the policy adopt
what lies behind the
of Sir ArchibaldClerk Kerr ed, many hundreds of Euro
certainly peans have died, and thou
to Java, but he is
Britain s sands of others have suffered,
about the ablest of unnecessarily.

professional diplomats.
For a
It is a rare op
portunity
for Dr. Evatt to pull
timehe was in China, but has
been for a long period in his teamoffthe fence as spec-
tators in sickeningtragedy
Russia, a
in fact from the days something
about
when Russia found herself
Hitler's
and do
first, in sending relief
to it,
these
unable to escape from measure,
people in full and
war. It meansthat the Brit secondly, taking partin
ish Government realisesthe in the
discussions about the future
intensesignificance of Java 40,000,000
and the happenings there. It
of people who
nearest
Javanese are to us. It is the
may be that the and
the Dutch have accepted a
most important of all Aus
suggestion tralia's external pioblems.
that a British
officialof high standing
should arbitrate between
them. Britain wants to get
out of Java as quickly as pos
sible, and her hopes are that
some compromise will emerge
enabling
her to do so. Britain
will not help the Dutch re
conquer process
Java if such a
decided Dutch.
is
It is one on by the that
thing
to ensure

the Japaneseare disarmed

colonial
and another to fight a
Netherlands.
battle for the
Indonesians
The are not cap

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