DUTCH INDIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 September 1941, Page 6

DUTCH INDIES

STATEMENT DESIRED ' FROM BRITAIN REGARDING COMPLETE ALLIANCE. UNEASINESS EXPRESSED. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day at Noon.) SINGAPORE, September 25. Dutch opinion is unanimous that the time has arrived when Mr Churchill should make a full and positive statement on the relations between Britain and the Netherlands East Indies. i The Batavia “Nieuwsblad” directs attention to the fact that both Mr A. Duff Cooper and Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Bro'oke-Popham have evaded the question of why no complete alliance exists. The newspaper says there must be some reason for Britain’s aversion to any alliance and for the very careful and, for the most part, negative utterances of Mr Duff Cooper and Sir Robert Brooke-Pop-ham. “The only solution is that Britain has to take into account the circumstances in which British assistance would not be absolutely assured beforehand, the paper observes; otherwise why this caution?’’ Informed sources say the silence is causing an undesirable misunderstanding and uneasiness among the peoples of the Netherlands. East Indies, China anod the United States. Speculation is rife as to whether Canberra will urge Mr Churchill to make an early statement to clear away the present doubt.