INDIES ON GUARD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 229, 26 September 1940, Page 10

INDIES ON GUARD.

ALERT HOLLANDERS.

ENORMOUS OIL WEALTH.

i Writing a few days ago about the I pending arrival in the Netherlands East i Indies of the Japanese economic mission : (which is now on the scene), the Ratals via correspondent of the British United L Press said that the delegation would find the Indies on a virtual war footing, ; with bomb shelters constructed, A.R.P, services organised and volunteer forces training under martial law., A shipment of American lighter aeroplanes had just arrived. Impressive indications of preparedness to meet emergencies should they arrive were seen in the Indies by members of the party of American journalists who recently visited New Zealand and who, after their stay in Australia, went on via the Indies. Borneo's Rich Fields. Mr. Ansel Talbert, in e message to the New York "Herald-Tribune," from Tarakan (Borneo) wrote: "Dutch soldiers peer down machine-gun sights from every hill round this tiny settlement. They are on the watch for enemy parachute troops. Near Tarakan are the richest oilfields in Borneo. Tarakan oil bubbles from the ground so pure that it can be used immediately in crude oil burners of battleships. The Tarakan wells produce nearly 1,000,000 metric tons a year, or about the amount that the Japanese mission is seeking to obtain from the Dutch East Indies." Mr. Talbert flew 350 miles south to Balik Papan, whose refineries, he says, are turning out large amounts of highoctane petrol for the Dutch and British air forces in the Pacific. Convoys Of Tankers. "To-day," he adds, "tankers could be seen steaming in convoys through minefields outside the harbour, escorted by Dutch warshipg. "There are several secret air bases in the Borneo jungles, near the oilfields, with bombers and pursuit 'planes on hand at all of them. To prevent a surt prise attack by warplanes or tanks, there are rows of steel rails sticking up ! from the ground round the airports." ! Mr. Harold Callender, of- the "New York Times," writing from Balik Papan I describes the powerful air, naval and ! artillery defences that the Dutch have organised to protect the oil wells. "This oil town, containing some 30,000 natives and 1000 Europeans, is regarded as one of the strategic points of the East Indies,' lie says. "Hence, weapons of land, sea and air are guarding its factories, huts, bungalows, harbour and airports. Elaborate Precautions. "Here, as at the other oil town of Tarakan, there is an elaborate system of air raid precautions, with well-built shelters, black-outs ,and air raid wardens, similar to Europe. The enormous harbour, where large Netherland and British ships lie at anchor, is closed at night. Pipelines carrying oil from the wells are mined, and could be blown up as quickly as could the oil refinery and the railway. "The precautions here are like those seen all the way from to Sumatra and Singapore, and throughout the Netherlands and British territories in the South Seas.

"There is a pronounced loyalty here as was shown on Saturday, when Queen' Wilhelmina's birthday was elaborately celebrated throughout the archipelago Many persons wear buttons, reading Remember Rotterdam. The Netherlands Shall Rise Again.' The Netheranders here, cut off from their homeland and families, feel bitterly about the invasion of their country. These European communities in the South tseas must lean upon somebody, financially and for their defence. And who is there to lean upon? It seems to the Aetherlanders that their fate is bound up with Britain's."