on Signing of Pact

Indonesians Walk Out on Signing of Pact

NOTHING short of a ball-to-ball des cription by an observer of great wis dom on the spot could hope to ex plain the manoeuvres in Indonesia these days. Truces are made; and truces are broken. Pacts are drawn up, and never signed.

But, if the situation is nuzzling to out siders, it must be maddening to the Dutch who are trving to cope with the exasperating situation and at the same time get the war-battered Indies indust ries functioning again.

A pact for the creation of a United States of Indonesia was drawn up after much talk and initialled by both narties last November. It was accented bv the Dutch Government in Holland shortly afterwards, and since that time there has been a lot of fiddling about on the part of the Indonesians.

At last, however everything was set fair for February 5. when representatives of the narties met in Batavia and were to finally sign the pact. At the last moment the Indonesian delegates walked out without signing. Their sudden departure followed a disagreement over the inter pretation of certain narts of the agree ment. Presumably the next step is to engage in further “talks.”

Meanwhile, clashes between Indonesian and Dutch troops continue in Java and Sumatra although a truce was agreed unon between the parties months ago.

The Dutch Commander-in-Chief, Lieut- General Spoor, said on February 1, that the truce had been a complete failure.

Dutch losses had been greater after the truce than before it, although on their side they had done everything they could to carry out the agreement honestly.

He blamed lack of central leadership on the Indonesian side as one of the principal causes of incidents. He said; “The Indonesian Commander-in-Chief is not responsible to the Minister for De fence, with the result that contradic tory statements are made, which do not contribute to the success of the negotia tions to implement the truce. Another case is the failure of the Republicans to issue the cease-fire order which, it had been agreed upon, should take effect on the 4th November. If one side does not keep to whatever is mutually agreed upon, the other side is forced to exert some pressure. I am the commander of an army, not the director of a shooting tent.

“The pressure we reluctantly exert is also in the interest of the Republic, be cause the same difficulties we now have with the unregular forces, will be exper ienced later on by the Republic. Perhaps co-operation with the Republican army to restore peace and order is possible, but their army must first be re-organised.

“Mistakes were not made on one side only, but the 350 breaches of the truce agreement by the Republicans in the last four months of last year are out of all proportion to the number of mistakes we made. When the Netherlands side commits errors, they are speedily recog nised and remedied and those respon sible severly punished.”

A GOVERNMENT including a Dutch and a Chinese Minister has now been elected for the new State of East Indonesia (that part of the Nether lands Indies other than Java and Sum atra) and affairs appear to be going smoothly. A commission has been ap pointed to study the problem of Dutch New Guinea and it is not certain yet whether it will be incorporated in the new State of East Indonesia or will stay a Crown Colony of the Netherlands.

The President of the New State is Tjokorke Soekawati, a cultured and well educated Balinese from a well-known family of local rulers. Nadjamoeddin daeng Malewa has been elected Premier of the new State. He is a native of Celebes.

The capital of the new State will be Macassar, on the s-w of Celebes. It has a population of about 60,000 and is the largest town in East Indonesia.

Shortly after his election and swearing in, Soekawati left Bali on a visit to Hol land.

Miss Lucy Hawkes, formerly on the staff of the Rarotonga hospital, has joined the Queensland Bush Nursing As sociation. After leave in New Zealand, she expected to take up her new work about the end of February,

A passenger on the flying-boat “Cor iolanus,” which passed through Brisbane from Fiji ‘ recently, was Uraia Kovio, first of three Fijians to be sent to Queens land to study tropical agriculture at Gatton College, Qld. Uraia, who is 28, said he had won a scholarship for a two-year course at the Gatton Agricul tural College. He was keen to study the latest developments in tropical agricul ture. particularly in regard to rice, pine apples, bananas, copra and sugar cane and European vegetables. On his return to Fiji, he will assist in training Fijian youth in better farming methods.

Among the 22 Indian passengers on the Qantas flying-boat Coriolanus which passed through Brisbane recently, were two small daughters of Mr. Harilal Val labji. Fiji. The destination of the Indian party was Bombay, India, where they are to spend a holiday.

Two of the young Fijian men who have been awarded Government scholarships at Gatton Agricultural College, Queensland, William Toganivalu and Eminoni Raivoka, are both old boys of the Marist Brothers’ secondary school, Suva, Three members of the Anglican Mis sion left Sydney for Papua by the Dec ember “Montoro”. They were Miss Mar garet de Bilbra, Miss Madeline Swan and the Rev. H. E. Palmer.

Mr. Frank Shun an expert on coffee cultivation, arrived in Sangara, Papua in February. He will spend some time there investigating the state of the native owned coffee plantations in the area and will submit a report to the Administra tion.

Mr. Culver Archibald Matley, of Mororo Estate, Papua, was married in Horsham, Victoria in February. His bride was Miss Margaret Anderson, of Horsham. The Matley family has been associated with Papua for over 40 years. Mr, Matley’s parents now, however, live in Canada.