JAVA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 22, 9 November 1945, Page 4

JAVA

THE world must view with mingled feelings of bewilderment and disappointment, the sudden unrest in the Indonesian populations of the Dutch East Indies. For the, first time in a long record, of Dutch administration the teeming, but servile millions of Java and the adjoining archipelagos have felt the restlessness and new outlook of national independence. Coming after the occupation of their land by the Japanese military forces, such a reaction is as sinister as it is disturbing. It is without doubt, an offshoot of the .Japanese doctrine of the new order in Asia. Three weary years of Japanese influence have undoubtedly left their mark. The seeds of insurrection have been sown, and the attitude of the new national leader Dr. Soekarno is, in his own words, merely in anticipation of the introduction of the Atlantic Charter. The truth of this declaration leaves the average onlooker at a loss for an effective reply. Undoubtedly the Charter, upon which are hung the very hopes of the future, has decreed that independence and self governing rights shall be granted to all nationalities, minorities and racial groups. Sixty million Javanese;, industrious, ambitious and emancipated have now taken the will for the deed, and have decided that Dutch domination shall end in their land. To the south, Batavia can be regarded as one of the oldest and most remote of the original Dutch overseas empire yet even here, the feeling of racial restiveness is apparent. The celebrated island of Bah, with its quaint customs, and picturesque people, is today seething with the same discontent. The immediate objective of the Allied nations is to bring about peace,, within the realms of Queen Wilhelmina, for the avowed purpose of adjudicating between the Dutch administrators arid the new head of the so-called Indonesian Independant Government. To this end we see today uie unwelcome spectacle of British troops being utilised to 'ompel law and order amongst, a people who declare they are only seeking their rights under the terms of the Atlantic Charter. That they are succeeding in creating at least a temporary lull is borne out by the happier negotiations now taking place, but the Javanese unrest is but a prelude to the distast.> " ful realisation that the whole of Asia is rapidly awakening and that the power of European sovereignties to monopolise and administrate their land is doomed to come to a swift end. This is an unpleasant fact, which must be faced by the white world at large. Modern conditions will make it utterly impossible for Europe to hold inthrall approximately a thousand million people. England hersef has realised that permanent peace can only be maintained by allowing self government throughout the Empire of India and the Malay States. Measures to this end are already being formulated, and it would serve the Dutch Imperial authorities well to do likewise,