CLOUD OVER JAVA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 February 1942, Page 3

CLOUD OVER JAVA

DUTCH PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENCE HOPES OF MEETING ENEMY ON EVEN TERMS.USE OF MOBILE FORCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, February 22. The Batavia representative of the Associated Press of Great Britain cables today: “I have just been sitting on the terrace of a luxury hotel and listened to an 11-piece orchestra with unconscious cynicism playing selections from the ‘Mikado.’ The all-clear has sounded outside and the natives have milled through the streets. Inside, officers drank and swopped stories, while Dutch and English girls, greatly outnumbered*and revelling in it, held court. Last night the dance floor was so crowded that it was uncomfortable. The bar was jammed, and so was the dining-room, which is understandable as the guests are sleeping five to a room. “There is no sign of depression, fear or foreboding. I had seen the same thing at Bandoeng and Surabaya. War, even on an island that is smaller than New Zealand, cannot kill their gaiety. The Japanese might have been thousands of miles away instead of under 200. “But the cloud which is moving over Java is not ignored. Many men in the bar have met the Japanese face to face, some in Sumatra and others in Borneo and the outer islands. At any moment the greatest blitz yet launched by the Japanese will be directed at Java, and the mere fact that invasion has been delayed for some days is an indication that the Japanese are not underestimating the strength of the defences and are bringing up reinforcements and preparing their bases before they strike. “To get fabulously wealthy Java, with every raw material Japan needs and 47,000,000 natives for cheap labour, was Japan’s primary object when she entered this war. When she strikes it will be with her full strength, aerially, navally and with heavy troop landings, probably at several points. “The Dutch defence is based on mobility, and the army hopes by its ability to rush strong forces to threatened points to meet the Japanese on even terms. "The courage of the Dutch has never faltered and is not faltering even though it is feared that all the Allied promises are not going to be fulfilled. The Dutch here see themselves in the same position as England was after Europe had been conquered. They say, ‘Hitler hasigot everything but what he wanted—England. The Japanese have got everything but what they want— Java. If we can hold Java we will turn the tide of the war’.”