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Revolt in Indonesia

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    November 10, 1945tial judgments, as victors, too much impugn ed. To take theposltion t hat leaders of enemy natlons are criminals becauset h e y opposed us is to allow th e megalomania of a very pow-erful natlon to dlstort our sense of justice.Unfortunatelywedonothave an organlzedworld,an dd o not yet possess completely Impartial instruments of jus-tlce. W e must d o the best we can to punls h those who havedefied the most widgly accepted standards of humanity. W eshall be the more successful d we do not attempt or claimtoo much, and I f we remember that he declslons of m enand nations who are Judges In thelr own case are viewedwlth conslderable cynlclsm by those w ho are oo weak todefy such pdgments .

    Llberals have generally haded Justice Jacksons achleve-ment In establlshlng, as one stand ard of Justice for he n-ternahonal court, the definltlon of aggressive war as a c nm -inal act Th e Russlans had the honesty to resist thls ideafo r a whlle, kno wln g hat It made hem gullty In the caseof Flnland.The y finally ylelded, probably havln g decidedto make this not too costly concession to Anglo-Saxon cant.MoreNa zi crimlnals tha nwe can ever execute are gulltyof the most ob rlous crimes against generally accepted stand-

    493ards of humanity. W hy , then, sho uld we emgage in the dubi-ous business of maklng a war of aggression an ex post factocrlrne, before thewo rld has been organized upon a basisof universal law and before an mtern atlon al community hasse t up Instruments for assesslng gullt ?We have lived, and may stdl be Ilvlng, in a state of inter-national anarchy. Under such condltmns some wars are more

    overtly aggresslve than others; the war lust ended certJnlyplaced ourfoes In th e category of overt aggressors. But allwars are expresslons of theamrchy la whlch thenationsIlve;and avanqulshed nation IS always able o satlsfy tsown cansclence that I t was prompted by the necessity of meet-Ing covert aggresslon wlth overt action. Itw l l be less in ch e dto do so If the victors refrain from too simple and to o self-righteous judgments.

    O n thls 2s an every issue under dlscussion American lib-erallsm has fade d to exercise the kind of restraint upo n theprlde of powerfuland victorlous natlons whlch it s hetradltlonal function of llberal lnteIllgance to exercise. Suchres t runt IS desperately necessary at the present momentas we move with unaccustomed an d untrled power in to thecomylexitles of world pohtics.

    Revolt in As ia : 11- IndonesiaBY ANDREW ROTH

    (Author of Dilemma in 1apad)

    SGNS have amockinguality in sweltering,enseBatavia Splashed hlgh on the bulldings in large,clear

    lettersare excerpts from he Declaration of Inde pend -ence, the GettysburgAddress, andotherstlrrlng Americanprotestsagainst the servltude of man to man.Bu t m th estreetshost& ndonesians see trucks on whlch th e lettersU. S. A. have Just been pu nt ed over carrying Netherlandssoldlers clad In Amerlcan u nrfor ms and aervously fingeringAmencan-made guns.

    A tram pul llng out of the Batavla station bears a mo recontemporary slogan. We dontwant a second Dutch treat 1The feellng behlnd it is grim rather than humorous, for eventhro ugh the bloody vel1 of the recent Japanese occupatlon theIndoneslans remember that the Dutch have always consideredthe Indles a bedrzyf, o r buslness concern, to be exploited asefficiently and profitably as posuble. Before the Japaneseinvasion three-fourths of the total capltal Investment in thefab ulo us Indles-the world s second richest colony-was Inthe hands of the Du tch. An d from this Investment was de-rived a profit amountlng to more than a fifth of the Nether-landsnatlonal Income. In blttercontrast the vast majorltyof th e 72,000,000 Jndoneslans were ill fed and ill housed ontheir average wage of 20 cents a day.Dutch polltlcaldmlnlstratlon was authorltarian andpaternal. Laws m d decrees emanated fro mone man-theGovernorGeneral. T he carefully stacked VoMn..d, orPeoples Councll, was a deb ating chamber whlch could crlti-cize but not control. Indonesian petty officials governed thenativepopulation hroughan ingenious system of Indirect

    control of native nstltutlons. The se officials, kep t oya l byhandsome salaries, were glven the duty of collecting taxes sothat the Indonesran masses would not feel directly the weightof Dutch dem ands. The Dutc h encouraged such manifesta-tlons of natlve culture as Ballnese dancing, but their educa-t l o d pollcy was u t te rly colonla l:after 35 0 years of theirrulehe llllteracy rate inhe Islands was 92 per cent.They were not so race-conscious as most European colonialadnxnlstrators, and Interm amag e wlth Indon esians was con-donedand even favored. But hls liberal attltudehad Itsorlgln In the need for enlarglng the governing class. Eura-sians were glven the status of Europeans so that they mig ht beset off agalnst thelr pure Indoneslan relatlves, wh o had nocltlzenshlp rights

    Durin g the past thlrty years Dutc h rulehas been challengedwlth lncreaslng fervor and strength by the swelling ranks ofIndonesian atlonallsts.Roughly speaking, the nationallstmovement has three main streams. One gro up favors a mod-erate, graduallst approach, wlth emphasls on native educationa nd on slow progress oward ndependence In collaborationwlth heDutch authontles. Anothergroup is inspired byreliglous natlonallsm. Indonesia is 85 per cent Moslem, andthe poweriu l Moslem nationallst organlzatlons ask their fol-lowers as Indoneslan colonlals to reslst Dutch imperial ruleand as Moslems to rise agalnst the Chrl shan infidels. T h eMoslem leaders look to the Islamlc world for supp art in theirstruggle. A third group of all-out, non-rellgious nationalistsembraces both mlddle-class elements and lek-wi ng workers.It s leaders are draw n largely from the Intelligentsla, b ut its

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    494mass support is furnished by the burgeoning rade unions,peasant organlzatlons, cooperatlves, and w omens and youthsgroups.T h e turbulence that marked the early twenties culminatedin widespread nsurrectionaryoutbreaks in 1926 2nd 1927.In February, 1933,hendonesian crew of the SevenProvinces, the flagship of theDu tch navy In the Indies,staged a mutiny. The Du tch responded by further curtwlmentof liberties. Thousands of the rebelllous natives were arrestedand sent to concentration camps in New Guin ea and Banda,

    The NATION

    w h e r e the sea, th ejucgle, and the malarialswamps took he placeof barbedire. Thes e c r e t p o l i c e w a sstrengthened,nd allw o r k e r s, particularlythose n factories, werefingerprmted. Censor-ship of the presswastightened,an d no out-doormeetings were al-lowed without a specialper nit . In one nstancethe p o k e declared anindo or nationalist meet-ing lllegal on the excuse

    that the roof had holes and was therefore op en to the skyDespite these represswe measures natlm ahs m contmued togrow In 1941 some five million natlonahsts of all varieties

    unlted In th e Madilrs Raklat h d o n e s u (Supreme PeoplesMovement of In don esla). The movement had its own news-papers, a news agency, Antara,and anatlonal ong, In-donesia Raya.

    Durin g the late thlrties Japans consuming interest in the011, bauxlte, and other wealth of the Indies m d its evidm tintemhon to drlve southward fosused interest on th e problemof the defense of Indonesla. A narrow fringe of the nation-alists succumbed to Japans blandlshments, but the majorityrecognized that Japan offered only an other and more virulentform of imp enah sm. T he Batavian Students Federatlon sentambulances to he Chinese victims of Japanese aggression.lndonesian delegates to th e second Wo rld You th Congress,held a t Vassar m 193 8, strongly upported its anti-fascistprogram. The Madllis Raklat Indonesza demanded hat thepeople of Indoneslabearmed and hat he natlonalists begiven responsible posts In the government to in sure mobillza-tlon of the people for hhe defense of Indonesia. The Dutchrefusedand tlghtened securlty restrictions against bo th heIndonesians and the Japanese. A fter the fall of Holland toth eGermans In 1940, he Indieswere putunder completemartial law. All nationallst meetlngs were forbid den, nation-alist leaders were arrested, nationallst newspapers were closeddow n. Wh en Japan attacked the lslands In 1942, the Dutchforces, unsupported by popular mobllization,were quicklyoverwhelmed.

    The Japaneseonquestubstltuted economic rape forHol lands systematic economic exploitation. Pressi ngmdi-tnry needs an d the consuming avarlce of th e mdi tarists andZa~batstr monopolistsesulted in ruthless lootin g of th e

    Dr. SoeRnruo

    country anddespoiling of th e people. Soon the ood andcloth ing shortage became acute. Men were pressed into laborgangsand women dragged off to he horrors of Japanesearmy brothels.

    T he Japanese sugar-coated their ruthless economic spoiia-t i a n wlth hppery promises of po1lt:cal independence. InSumatra they fou nd Dr. Achmed Soekamo, the leadlng figureof the nahonalist movement. Soekarno had h e n arrested bythe Dutch in 1940 for the thlrd tlme and exiled to SumatraAltho ugh he had adequ ate reason to hate he Dutch, hereis no lndlcation th at he was in any sense pro- apanese Indeed.the Du tch adm lt t!lat he asked them o evacuate him fromSumatra because of his antl-Japanese record. The Dutch.however, declded to leave hli2 to the tender mercies of th einvaders, who offered himan Importantpost if he wouldcooperate an d may w ell hsve hreatme dhimwith a dlrefate i f he would not The well-kn own intellectual Dr. Susilaand two hundred other promlnent lndoneslzns who refusedto collaborate were kd led by the Japanese.

    Soekarnos assumpt!on of the presldtncy of the Java Cen-tral Council In 1942 Inltl&ed a period of uneasy and mls-trus tful collaboratlon. Th e Japanese exerted pressure on thenationalists toprov lde economic andpolltical support; thenatloaallsts in sste d that the Japanese pay off on the promiseof Independence whlch they dangled before the people. Jn-done s~ a nnatlonallsts clalm that Soekarno, under he verynose of t h e Japanese secret pcilce, began orgaamng guerrillabands as early as 1943, telilng the Japanese the bands w ouldbe used to reslst Allied landings Radio Tokyo admltted thatJapanese-tralned ndoneslans had fired on Japanese forcesby mlstake. As the Japam se faced defeat in the first halfof 19 45, they were orced to yleld moreand more to thenatlonallsts In the hope of g a m n g military support.

    T he capltulatlon of the apanese in August, 1 945, im-mediately brou ght a ationallst uprIslng; the IndonesianRepublic was establlshed onAugust7. he Japanesedrop ped he reins and allowed the nationalists theirhead,know ing that the results could only be embarrassing to thevictorlous Allles. In an lncredlbly brief time t he Indonesiansdominated Java and began to operate the public servlces andto rm Indoneslan trm pswi th weapons selzed f r o m theJapanese. Three rad10 transmltters and he nationalist paperMerdeRa blared both nti-D utch nd anti-Japanese prop-aganda. ndoneslan seamen onDutch shlpsstruck In portsall over thewo rld. n he lslands th e movementacquiredsuch momen tum that Soekarno and other leaders frequentlyseemed to be borne along on ~t ather t han to ;be directi ng it.They have found thard o controlyoung aclal-mindedMoslem fanatlcs, who , inclted probably by the Japanese, aretrying to start holy wa r agalnst Du tch nd Eurasianinfidels.

    The Indon esian Natio nal Committee, the high commandof the nationallst forces, is dommated by Holland-educatedSociallst intellectuals led by Vlce-Presldent Dr. MohammedHatte . The lef t is represented by Raden Iwa Koesoema Soe.mantri,Mmister of Soclal Affalrs. Soemantri was Indonesiasdelegate to he Comintern in1925,studied at the EasternPeoples University in Moscow, a nd s he auth or of ThePeasants Movem ent n Indon esia. Soekarnohimself holdsno very clear-cut politlco-economic views. At least one or

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    November 10, 1945two members of the committee have clean records of re.sistance to the Japanese.

    T he nationalists are making a strenuous &ort to captureworldopin ion and isolate the Dut ch. Soekarao has invitedthe Indian leader Pand lt Neh ru, Foreign M lnister Evatt ofAustralla, MmeChlan g Kai-shek, andGeneral Carlos Ro-mulo to vlsit Indonesia and judge conditions f or thenlsclves.D r.Hatte hasdemanded thatDutc h troops be wlthdrawnuntll he question of Indoneslan dependence can be re -viewed by acompetent United Nations committee.

    Large sectlons of the colond and labor worldshave re-sponded n Singapore 7,000 dock workers paralyzed theport in sympathy. Transportat~onofDu tch soldiers, arma-ments, ofhclals, bulilon, and records was seriously delayedby a series of A ustrallan strikes Nin eteen Australlan radeunlons efused to oad , repalr, or snpply ships destined tosuppress the Indoneslannatlonallstmovement,Chmese andIndian seamen joined strlklng Indonesians In refusing o~n a nhem.

    The reactlon to all this on the part of the Dutch has beencompounded of fear, fury, and rantic disagreement.Theyknow that Indoneslan Independence would convert Hollandlato a third-rate power2nd bung o an end tens of thou-sands of profitable colonlal jobs They see Indonesian gradu-ates of Dutch prlsons In posltlons of power m d darlng todlsbelleve Queen Wllhelm mas 942 ledge of evectualdomlcion status. They eel a growing sense of frustratlonat havlng to rely on Brltlsh forces and American qwpment.And they disagree violently among themselves onhow oregaln their em plre. The stiff-necked aristocrat Jonkheer vanStargenborgh Stachouwer reslgned as Governor General ofthe Netherlands East Indles In protestagainstnegotiatlonswlth he nationallsts. More farsighted co!ontal officia ls ad-mit the necessity of negotlating and concede that the Indiesshould btain omlnlon status mwenty or thirty years.These, however, are attacked as "leftists" or publicly contra-dlcted.W he n he first landed n Java, Sir AlexanderChnstison,commander of the British occupation forces, declared some-what surprisingly that t was not he British intsntion topull Dutch chestnutsout of th e fire. Because of their owndlfficultles wlth Moslems elsewhere, the Brltlsh were i n c h e dto be conclliatory wl th he Javanese Moslems, particularlyin wew of nationalist streng th, he weakness of wadableAllled forces, and he exp1,oslve poten tiallties of the entlrecolonlal ltuation. You must meet with these chaps andgive them a clear-cut statement of future status, Slr Alex-ander said toDu tch officials. Subsequently, in fear of th espread of th e nationallst contaglon and eager to weld heirW este rn European bloc, the Brltlsh became friendlier tQ theDutch. To s u p p o rt -o r tolerate-lmal nationallst move-ments in thls hour of confuslon would lose Britain the friend-ship of its nearest nelghbors, the influentla1 London Eco~r-omist asserted.American policy in nd one sia has been characterized bythe Hrndz/sta?z Tzmes, publlshed by Gandhis son, as uttermoral cowardice. W he n Soekarno protested agsins t the useof American equlp ment to suppress the Indonesian independ-encemovement, Secretary of State Byrnes suggested onlythat American abels be removed from the equtpmen t. This

    475seemed a far cry from the ringing words of President Roose-velt in April, 1943: We know that the day of the explolta-tion of the resources and the peo ple of one country for thebenefit of any group In another country is definitely over.

    In the Wind1E UC AT ION The Unlversi ty of M inn so ta is offer ing acourse in sclentlfic and technlcal Russian. The prospectussays, The publication of num erous Important sclentific con-

    tributions i n Russlan mAkes t essentlal lor sclentists In thiscountry to have a t lezst some rudmentary readlng knowledgeof the Russlan language GUID AN CE My polnt is, sald Paul Mallon in a discus-slon of theatomic bomb on October 9, we should not beguided polltlcally by sclentlfic advlce.B AR GAI NB AS EM ENTT heUnlted ShlpsCorporation,N ew Iork, has Canadlan corvettes for sale. For a mmimumof $29,000 each, says an advertisement, in quantitles often, we offer you these famous vessels costing origmally ovet$650,000 each FORTISSIMO Edztnl uud P?rblrsbetI s p e c d supplementon syndicated columns lists Dorothy Thompsons On t h eRecord under MUSIC.POPULARIZATION. Hearsts San Francisco Cd!I-B?~lletinof October 6 announced erlallzatlon of Sinclair LewissCass Tlmberlane Ineasy-to-read pxture -strip orm.T E A M ! T E A M ! T E A M 1 A chapter of the Alu mni Associa-tion of G eorge tow n Unlverslty has been established in Tokyo.SACRIFICE:he Combined Resources and ProductionBoardannounced on October 20 that percapitapurchasesof clvlllan goods and servlces in the Unlte d Km gdom fell15 to 2 0 per cent below the 1938 level durlng the war, butI n the Unl ted States and Canad a rose 10 to 1 5 per cent.0 . C. S : Chicago department stores, said the W a l l Sfree tJournal of October 25 , dont know what to do about for-mer salesmen who went into he servlces and became cap-tams, majors, and lleutenant colonels. You cant expect the mto be happy selling socks or shirts, says one merchant. Thestores feel kin d of cheated, too. They say it was their train-ing hat augh t he salesmen how to sell themselves alongthe road to success in unlform.E X P L A N A T I O N . H. R. Cullen, chairman of the board ofregents of the Unlverslty of H ouston, Texas, in an address onOctober 19 said the trouble with he country is amisun-derstanding,not between capital and labor, for we are al lcapltalists, for to owna house, a cow, a arm, a home, isto be in possession of capital; so the mlsunderstanding mustbe between the masses of people and corporations.[ lVe inv i t e oar readers t o w bmz t material for It2 th e Wind.0pze dollar wzll be paid f o r each i tem accepted.]

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