FATE OF JAVA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 March 1942, Page 3

FATE OF JAVA

HANGING IN THE BALANCE POSITION VERY CRITICAL. JAPANESE USING CAPTURED TANKS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 8. The Dutch East indies news agency, in a message from Bandoeng yesterday, said that the Japanese had broken through Bandoeng’s northern defences, and the situation in western Java was critical. The last direct statement received from Java was a dramatic farewell message from the Netherlands East Indies telephone officials yesterday: “We are now shutting down. Long live our Queen!” Since then there has been no radio or telephonic communication with the island. Tokio claimed that the forces defending Bandoeng were abandoning the town and retreating to the south. Today the Japanese claim that Bandoeng has been encircled, but this is not confirmed. “The fate of Java is in the balance, and at the moment it appears that the scales are weighted heavily in favour of the Japanese,” said the Bandoeng correspondent of the “Daily Express” yesterday . “The Japanese are using British tanks which were captured in Malaya. The Dutch casualties so far have not been heavy, and the main defence fprce is intact. Units of the forces which were withdrawn are being reformed and re-equipped in readiness for another counter-offensive, and there are still some reserves behind the trained front-line troops. Upon the speed with which the reforming process is achieved may hang the fate of Java.” HOPE NOT REALISED FLOW OF REINFORCEMENTS. LONDON, March 6. A message from Bandoeng says it can now be revealed that the Pacific Council assured the Netherlands authorities that if a stand could be made as long as the second part of February reinforcements would literally pour I in to such an extent that the Japanese would face an equal enemy. j In view of this, the Dutch preparations during the last few weeks were ;

mainly preparations of the positions which the Allies were going to occupy. But the reinforcements did not flow in; they trickled in, and did not consist of manpower. Thus, when the enemy landed on I February 28, in numbers believed to exceed 100,000, they outnumbered the I Dutch four to one in men, equalled or surpassed them in material, and had air superiority.