16,000 Indonesian

Exiles in Holland One Angle of South Pacific's Defence Problem

iy|OST people know that the VI bemused “Republic” of Indo nesia was brought into being y United Nations dreamers after he war, when Britain and United Itates refused to assist Holland in estoring her sovereignty over her 50-years-old Netherlands Indies. *hey know, too, that the band of olitical adventurers who now call tiemselves the “Government of ndonesia” were, in the beginning, jlected and shaped for the job by le Japanese, who occupied the ’etherlands Indies from early 1942 > early 1946.

But how many know the allied ory of the South Moluccas—sec on of the East Indies lying very lose to Australian territory, in abited by an attractive people. The ,tter have appealed repeatedly to ustralia for aid, but the unimagin- Jive and pawky Australian poli cians and bureaucrats carefully nore them.

When the Japanese over-ran the (dies, Javanese “intellectuals” col borated happily with the invaders, tie Moluccans did not. They ught staunchly with the Dutch jainst the Japs until nothing more uld be done; they formed a re stance movement during 1943-45; id. when they learned that the utch would not return, they pre ired to run their own country he Moluccas) as a self-governing (it of the Indonesian Federation rich had been approved by UNO.

But the Jap-inspired Javanese, tiile paying lip service to the an of Federation, would have none it. By devious methods of ickery, the Javanese established emselves as the ruling state, and e so-called “Republic” of Indo sia took the place of the proposed ideral Government. There never js been a general election.

The people of Molucca archipel o, and especially of South olucca, either had to accept this iuation. or leave, or face exter ination. About 60,000 had served soldiers under the Dutch.

The majority switched to the donesian Army. Many were de abilised and disappeared into a lien but silent civilian popula >n, which is ready at any time to >e against the “Republic” and e Jakarta job-holders.

The remainder, with their milies, totalling no less than ,000, were taken to Holland in 19-50. This was when Holland, serted by her former Allies, was liged to sign the 1949 Treaty, un r which she transferred rereignty of the Indies to the In

donesians —about two generations before they were ready for self government.

EVER since then, at a cost of some £2,500,000 per annum, Holland has maintained these exiles from Molucca (numbering now some 16,000) in a series of 60 camps. Their future is an outstand ing problem, for which there seems to be no solution. The Dutch have handled the people with sympathy —trying to employ the men, edu cating the children, giving services of various kinds —and seeking al ways some means of transferring the people (mostly Amboinese) back to their own islands, under condi tions which will ensure their future security and well-being. Under pre sent conditions —Communist con trol creeping across the Indies, as the Javanese set-up deteriorates — there is no guarantee of either.

An Australian politician, Dr. H.

V. Evatt, was primarily responsible for the betrayal of the Dutch and the establishment of this present “Republic” of Indonesia. (During that period, Dr. Evatt was Chair man of the UNO Assembly.) Ever since then both Socialist and non- Socialist Governments in Austra lia have run for cover whenever they were asked to take a strong and definite line in relation to In donesia, and the periodic appeals of the helpless minorities in the Indies.

It was Evatt’s Socialist Govern ment which permitted the Austra lian Communists, operating through the waterside labourers’ union, to immobilise Dutch ships in Sydney harbour in the late ’4o’s, when the Dutch were trying to get supplies for the rehabilitation of Indonesia.

Now the chickens are coming home to roost. Communist power

developing in Indonesia menaces the future safety of the South Pacific. And the Communists’ path to the South Pacific is the East Indies, which Australian and other kinds of politicians so weakly and stupidly left in the care of the Indonesians. Now, maybe, the claims of the Moluccans, and the half-million or so Dutch Indo nesians so cruelly abandoned in 1946-49, will get a little considera tion.