INDONESIA AND THE ATLANTIC CHARTER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 19, 30 October 1945, Page 4

INDONESIA AND THE ATLANTIC CHARTER

\ were from 6d to 1/- a day ? ' and the average income of the Indonesians was Id per day! The Indonesians have drawn up a manifesto in which they call on the democratic peoples to assist them in their struggle. They ask that Indonesia be immediately constituted an independent Sovereign State free to> decide her internal and external affairs in peace and harmony with her neighbours. They wish to establish parliamentary government with a democratic franchise; equal rights and response bilities for all citizens; equality; and freedom of of religion of press and of speech. We should' actively demand that the British cease interfering »n Indonesian affairs, unless they intervene an the $ide of the Indonesians and their struggle to implement the terms of the Atlantic Charter. To be passive means to be on the side of oppression and injustice and sow the seeds of future wars. Yours etc.^ Secretarial Edgecumbe Branch Communist Party.

Sir^ —In 1942 ? in a broadcast to Mr Sumner Wells said: "If this war is in fiact a :wa ! r for the liberation of peoples, it must assure the sovereign equality of peoples throughout the world. The principles of the Atlantic Charter must be guaranteed to the world as a wholein all oceans and continents." Yet the moment the war is over we find British soldiers being used alongside the Japanese—to brutally suppress the Indonesian people in their struggle for the principles of the Atlantic Charter." It is quite untrue that Dr. Soe-< karno was ever a quisling. The Japanese tried, unsuccessfully to arrest him before the British landed in Java. Dr. Soekarno in a broadcast said: "For the construction of an independent Indonesia we have nothing to do with Japan. We will establish' our indepedence with the assistance of other nations." Each year prior to Japanese occupation, profit flowed from Indonesia to Holland, yet the rates of pay for Indonesian workers