By the time this paper appears, the students of this college will have staged a demonstration at the Dutch Consulate in Wellington, to protest against this colonial war, which violates every international code from the United Nations Charter downwards.

Australian Protest

You will have read in Saturday's papers of the demonstration by the students of Sydney University for the same purpose, and of its result, when the meeting was forcibly broken by the local representatives of law and order. We hope that our own police force will be more reasonable. Australia can be proud of the part some of her citizens played in the Indonesian War of Independence two years ago, when the Dutch forces were supported by the British Army. At that time Australian watersiders successfully boycotted all ships loading war materials for the Dutch, thus considerably assisting the Indonesian people. New Zealand watersiders imposed the same boycott, and many ships were tied up, but this issue was never so sharp here as in Australia.

U.N. Must Act

It is now obvious that in the intervening two years the Dutch have been playing for time in their farcical negotiations with the Indonesian Government. They have borrowed two million dollars from America to bolster up their decaying imperialism, and, gaining confidence from the failure of the United Nations Organisation to intervene to stop the terrorist tactics-of Britain in Greece and Palestine, of America, in Greece and China, and of France in Vietnam, they have attacked again.

Their plea is that the Indonesians refuse to export products to a starving world. In fact the Indonesians are willing to export in large quantities—it is to their advantage to do so—but the Dutch still hold all the main ports of Java, and demand that all exports should pass through their hands—an intolerable burden to an independent Republic.

The NEI Government recognises legitimate aspirations of Indonesians towards national existense through friendly co-operation - Van Mook, Lieut.-Gov. 6/11/45.

Of course, it is the rich resources of Indonesia that the Dutch want. They want freedom to exploit the country as they have done for three centuries, through Royal Dutch Shell, and similar big businesses, and are in no way concerned with the freedom to prosper of the millions of Indonesians who own the country. It is the most blatant example of a colonial war seen this century.

The United Nations must [unclear: act] at once to stop this war, and every government and every organisation must send protests to UN and to the Dutch government. Otherwise the Charter becomes a farce and imperialists all over the world will know they may do as they please without fear of intervention.