Evening star., 1947-07-31
Java City, Demolished
In Indonesia Retreat,
Is. Taken, Dutch Report
BY the Associated Press

the capture of fire-scarred Ma
lang, former resort city which is
the key to East Central Java.
The town is a wilderness" the
first semi official dispatch said.
Important buildings, factories, a
convent, and cinemas were blown
up and burnt days ago. Shops were
pillaged and the city is dead"
More than 100000 Indonesians left
Malang ahead of the Dutch forces,
the dispatch said. Only Chinese and
Eurasians stayed behind.
Everywhere Malang presented a
picture of desolation," the dispatch
reported. According to the popula-
ton, looting commenced a week ago
and also demolitions of public
buildings by the revolutionary
army These included members of
the regular Indonesian forces and
other organizations made up of peo-
pie from the island of Celebes. Local
authorities were powerless. Indone-
sian snipers left the town today"
Batavia Declared Menaced.
A broadcast Indonesian COM
munique said earlier that the Dutch
were within mortar range and that
Indonesians were applying the
scorched earth policy.
The Republicans asserted also that
their forces were within II miles of
Batavia and had reoccupied the
perimeter towns of Tangerang, Ser
pong and Tjimene. The Dutch de-
clared this claim was nonsense :"
No sign of Republican activity in
the general Batavia area was found
by neWSmen.
The Indonesian broadcast said
Malang was heavily grenaded and
machinegunned" during the night,
and that Republicans started fires
in the city yesterday. 1t said Dutch
planes strafed 'Malang. i~.
The Indonesians said another COL
umn of the Dutch army, equipped
largely with American lend-lease
and surplus war supplies, had cut
nearly halfway across the waist of
Java in a drive from legal, on the
north coast, to the Robotsari area,
IS miles to the southeast. The Re-
publicans asserted the Dutch were
using a company of japanese In
the attack.
Dutch Use Mechanized Forces.
The Republican 7th Division, pit
ted against the Dutch advancing on
Malang from the north, offered no
resistance except that OF
log road blocks, tank traps, land
mines and occasional sniping, a dis
patch from Soerabaja said. The
Dutch jungle troops were backed by
forces. Dutch officers
said four Dutch soldiers had been
killed and six wounded and that
number of enemy snipers were killed.
Dutch scout planes reported the
streets of Malang appeared deserted.
A Jogjakarta broadcast declared
Indonesian shore batteries sank
Dutch warship" of Thinning, IN
Central Java.
The Indonesians said also the
Dutch had occupied Lahat, in Su-
matra west of Palembang. but that
Indonesian troops had halted the
advance.
Meanwhile, Netherlands authori-
ties, who since July 20 have been
reducing the republics territory by
military means, moved today to do
the same thing by political action
as we'll
The Dutch government estab-
lished the islands of Bangka and
Billion, rich in tin, and the RiouW
Archipel archipelago, producer OF
bauxite, as autonomous territories
in the projected United States OF In
donesia.
These territories all had been re-
garded as part of the republic
along with Java, Sumatra and Ma
doera-under the Linggadjati Cher
ibont agreement of last March,
which provided for U. S. I. to be-
come a sovereign and equal partner
of the Netherlands under the Dutch
crown January l, 1949.
The Netherlands announcement
said, democratic councils would be
elected for the three territories and
authority given the governments
would reflect "the completely new
relations which have come into
being" lately.