Richards On

‘Jackals’

Of Indonesia

TUCKED away in the London cable news in the daily press recently was a paragraph which should be brought to the notice of all those Reds and Pinks in Australia who are so prompt to rush to the defence of their Indonesian com rades, and to condemn the Dutch for their actions in Indonesia.

Lord Milverton, better known to peoples of the Pacific as Sir Arthur Richards, speaking in the House of Lords, said the Dutch action in Indonesia was fundamentally right.

Dr. Soekarno and his colleagues were really war criminals, he added. The Dutch were opposing the possibility of the whole of Indonesia falling into the hands of a small group, he said. Apart from a relatively small extremist element, the native population welcomed the re turn of the Dutch.

“There is a great paralysis of human indecision lying across Britain’s foreign and colonial policy,” continued Lord Milvertone. “It seems that once more the last laugh will not be in London, New York or Delhi, but in the Kremlin, and it will be difficult for us to avoid a large share of the blame.”

Lord Milverton gave what he termed “a warning” about what is likely to happen if we do not stiffen our policy and face the actual facts in Indonesia.”

He added: “The Indonesian leaders are not crusaders. They are no better than jackals, preying on a war-ravaged, be wildered native population.”

That is the opinion of a man of proved administrative ability, whose wide ex perience of colonial territories, particu larly in the East, fits him to speak with real authority—which is more than can be said of the “experts” at Canberra and their Moscow-inspired Union bosses, who dictate Australia’s foreign policy.

Arthur Richards started his Colonial Service career in Mayala, and served there for many years before becoming Governor of British North Borneo. Then he was successively Governor of Gambia, Fiji, Jamaica and Nigeria, before his re tirement and elevation to the peerage.

By Na Matanivanua.