IN THE DUTCH INDIES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12536, 6 May 1915, Page 8

IN THE DUTCH INDIES.

Just before the war . broke out there was-■ a. movement in -The Dutch East Indies for ■an understanding with Australia by .'which the formidable Ucvt which the Dutch colonists are to have should co-operate wirh the Australasian fleet in the protection of their respective, interests. Since then we have, s-eeit that an -understanding has

been arrived at between the Dutch and the United States t'er mutual protection of their interests in those waters— Java, Borneo. • the . PhiHipines. Professor Ma-omillan Brown, whose remarkably wide .and varied correspondence embraces -these joints, had recently a letter from an Australian resident in Java among several which .his book on "The Dutch East Indies" lias brought forth. The writer tells of the exodiis of British planters to enlist. He himself did so, which circumstances prevented his, doing, and' then"descriibihjj" the "local attitude, says':-—"The-■Dutch- are practically antiGerman—almost to a man —though that docs not necessarily mean' that they are pro-English. That they are not!' 'We are- 'giving them too unpleasant a time, with their trading for that-. They are very pro-French. Most n'e'iHrals. seem to have a- leaning'.'tHaY.\vay:; The Boer War lias still an unpleasant taste to the Dutch, I and that is why they are not pro-English, hut every Dutch paper praised Botha and condemned De Wet. ■ Those Dutch people I who had a slight German leaning at the I beginning have now lost- it or at any rate 'say nothing, but most- are openly I hostile. Since the Zeppelin raids this is j | more pronounced than ever, and very scathing leaders, have appeard in the daily papers here. One sees nothing about Australian or New Zealand troops or contingents, though the movements of Canadians j in the .war are chronicled. All I have! s*en is .Samoa taken by Xev.- Zalanders. j Xew Guinea by Australians, and the Svil- I ney-PLmden fight. Even after this latter! they don't seem to lake our efforts very ! seriously. Why is it that most foreigners j regard Australia and its people as some- j thin.g in the light of a joke? I have j noticed it very much abroad, and it is most unpleasant.-" The feelings of the very wealthy and populous Dutch; colonies north of' Australia are likely io I be cf increasing importance to Australasia j in the future. Hence the importance' »:' j such leftfci'-i as i;hf! alp'*- <