 The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations present the Pacific story. In the midst of the fury of world conflicts, events in the Pacific are taking on even greater importance. Here is the story of the Pacific and its people whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific War. Here is the tale of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. The beggars of the sea are the water fuses, the beggars of the sea. That is what the Spaniards called us Dutch when we fought for our freedom from staying more than 300 years ago. We made it our slogan, beggars of the sea, on guard. We have never forgotten it. We had only one hopeful saying then. The title turned. We have the same saying now as we sit here in the Indies waiting, waiting for deliverance from the Japanese. The Japanese swarmed over our islands. Our men went out to fight them. Some of our men will never come back. Some are still fighting in other places in the Pacific and we are here in the Indies waiting. It will turn. Yes, it will turn as it has turned so many times since my people came out here from Holland more than 300 years ago. My people have seen the ebb and flow of this tide through all these years. For hundreds of years there was rivalry here in the Indies between the English and my people. I remember my grandfather telling the effect here when Napoleon took all of Holland in 1806. Napoleon sent a governor out here to represent him and the English were afraid that the French planned to take the Indies. So the English sent a fleet of a hundred ships. Come on, head out. Yes, orderly. Navigate the reports that we should sight the target any time now, sir. Very well. Inform me the moment a landfall is made. Yes, sir. Six weeks at sea from Malacca. Yes, we should be very near to Batavia. Let's make very sure this time Mr. Raffles, we take out objective. Unless intelligence has reached the touch of our movements, we should take Batavia by complete surprise. We must not forget that this is the third British naval squadron to threaten Java. The difference, Lord Minto, is that this time we have 100 ships. We've made hostile demonstrations before on these waters, but never with so many ships. I'm hopeful that our force is adequate. Look at them. Look at them out there, sir. A field of sailing vessels as far as the eye can see. 57 transports of troops and 43 men of war. We can expect resistance. We can be certain that the Dutch forces are concentrated at strategic points. But that is all to our advantage, sir. But that is not where General Sosamio Lachmouty nor Colonel Gillespie shall attack. Nevertheless, that Dutchman General Janssen's is wiling. You hear that, Lord Minto? And? Yes. The watch on the poor top of sighted land. Landfall! We sighted it, sir. Land. Very well. What is our position? The navigator reports we are 12 miles east of Batavia. Excellent. We're standing in at Chilling Ching. Yes, sir. Inform General Lachmouty to prepare to land his expeditionary force at the point when the order is given. Yes, sir. And Mr. Raffles? Yes, my lord. We will send our proclamation ashore to the Dutch inhabitants once. We will also send the proclamation ashore to the Dutch inhabitants. The people stood on the shore at Batavia and watched a hundred English vessels come up over the horizon. They had never seen so many sails and so many ships. Lord Minto and Mr. Raffles were aboard the fastest craft of all. A frigate named the Modest. The shore, everyone was tense and nervous. General Janssen concentrated all his soldiers at the Fort at Cornelis, about seven miles south of Batavia. My people expected the ships to start firing any minute. Then a boat came ashore with two proclamations. Proclamations? What do they say? Read them. Read them. What do they want? This one is written in the Malay and the Japanese language. Must be for the natives. It says the English come as friends. They expect to be received as friends by all the native inhabitants. Yes, friend. What does the other one say? Oh, this one says, in every period England has been the champion and defender of Europe. France has been with equal uniformity the common enemy of all nations. Between these two, the option must be made. The extinction of Holland has left her colonies to their own judgment. If the sentiment switch his excellency has been desirous of ascribing to them, should induce them to pass cordially under the British dominion, he offers friendship and protection during any contest with those who would adhere to France. On the very same day of these proclamations, General Sir Samuel Acnuti's English expeditionary force landed at Chilling Chin. No one there opposed them. And five days later, the British took Batavia without firing a shot. The blood was spilled at Cornelius, much of it. A deserter from the French forces had the English soldiers by a bypass to the place where they... Devil, devil, we are getting very close to their picket line. I think we are. We've been marching for hours in the dark. Turn this way. Look out for yourself. Right there. That's so loud. Keep up that air. No staggers, right over there. We must not be discovered or... It's the picket line. Down, down, down, down, down. We're discovered. We can't stay here. Deploy them, destroy them. On that day, they say that 4,000 Dutch and French soldiers were killed or wounded. The English lost 500. General Janssen surrendered and the Indies passed under the dominion of Britain. For five years then, Britain ruled the Indies. Then at last the Dutch commission came out from the Netherlands to take over the Indies once more. There was rejoicing, but also planning and thinking for the future. We have seen the trend of events. We must now strengthen our position. Oh, there it is, that we make ourselves strong here in the Indies. Then try to be strong throughout the Far East. Our trading posts in British India have been unprofitable. Can I say, give them up? Give up our posts in British India? In exchange for them. Perhaps we could induce Britain to give up our posts in the Indies. England might listen to this. Britain might give us Benkulen in Sumatra and perhaps the island of Billidon. If there is such a possibility that it's an open negotiations with Britain, it may be possible to work out an agreement. For years, we and the English had been rivals in the East and at last in 1820, we sat down to talk it all over. We talked of many settlements, but the English would not give up Singapore. So the negotiations broke off. But in 1823, we sat down again. And after long discussions, a treaty was signed providing... Britain relinquishes all claims on Sumatra. Holland relinquishes all claims on the Melee Peninsula. Britain is to have a free hand on the Asiatic mainland. Holland is to have a free hand in the islands. Money poured from the Netherlands Indies into the Dutch treasury. The natives were exploited by the government. Their wages were low. And they had too little time to work on their own crops. The soil was exhausted. The natives were neglected in their misery. And in many cases, the officials were corrupt. Famine came. The natives cried for food. And then the voices of men crying for reform started to be heard. There was Dr. W. R. Baron Van Hoover, who had been a preacher in the Indies for 10 years. Dr. Van Hoover took the part of the natives... Through state of affairs here in the Indies, it's now becoming known in Holland. Until now, the public in Holland has been kept in ignorance of the situation here by censorship by the government of all news and reports. This must stop. The first consideration of the government policy should be not how much Holland can get out of the East Indies, but how much it can do to raise the material and intellectual interests of the Indies. I propose to lead a movement for a free press, free of government censorship, and for representation of the natives in the state's general. Dr. Van Hoover? Yes. You are aware that you are not being very circumspect. This is no time to be circumspect, sir. You are here in the Indies at the sufferance of the crown. I am here to improve the lot of the people, the natives, as well as the doctor. Returned passage to Holland might be arranged for you, Dr. Van Hoover, so that you might preach your reforms where your thoughts could get a more appreciate. Dr. Van Hoover was obliged to resign and return to Holland. The need for reform was great. Then Dawes Decker came out here. He was a government official. He had served in the Murlachas for a number of years, advancing from one position to another. When he was transferred to Java, he had only been there a few weeks when he began to protest against the abuses. His superior called him in and cautioned him and threatened to dismiss him. He gave up his appointment and went back to Holland. And there he wrote a novel that he called Max Haveler. Ah, this book. It is more than a novel. No man could write so forcefully about anything unless he knew it very well. Ah, but who is this Multitulio who has written the book? A native of the Indies? That is a pseudonym. Someone else has written it. Oh, certainly. The hero of the novel is a Dutch official in Java, Max Haveler, when he describes his own experiences. Yeah, he writes up the faults of the colonial policy and the vices of the administration. He does not seem to understand that he is endangering his own head. Yeah, this is the work of one who has lived in the Indies. Do you have any idea of who it is? I have. Dawes Decker. Decker's book, Max Haveler, or something like Uncle Tom's Cabin, is told of oppressed people and exposed the abuse of free labor. And in the end it stirred the people of the Netherlands to reform. After this, our Dutch civil officers here in the Indies became the best colonial administrators in the world. But before this came about, the government had first to extend its control throughout the Indies. For many years, we Dutch had little control in the Indies outside of Java. Our empire in the Pacific is the work really of the last hundred years, and much of it is the work of the last 40 years. And one of our most difficult tasks was a chin. A chin is on the northwest tip of Sumatra. When Britain gave up Sumatra to us, and we gave up Malaya to her, then a chin came under the Dutch flag. But there were years of bloodshed before there was peace in a chin. Word has just reached us that fighting has again broken out in a chin. Again? General Van Herp, we have been carrying our warfare with our chin for more than 30 years. We pretended to the throne of the Sultan as far away to the island of Gaius. There must be some way we can pacify our chin. After all, it is only a small kingdom. All its terrain, its mountains and valleys favor the natives. I thought we had done this fighting in our chin last year. Our chin has cost the Netherlands nearly 200,000 troops and nearly 200 million dollars in these years of fighting. 200,000 men? 200 million dollars? It has been a tremendous price to pacify these people. We must understand them better. General Van Herp, we must learn to deal with the Sultan. They are the one. No. You recall the Sultan who guaranteed immunity from piracy to our traitors? Yes, I recall. The Archenes pirates continue to take our ships? Yes, but the Archenes understand us better than we understand them. They know our ways and our thinking. We have thought so much of putting them down that we have not thought of understanding them. We must remember they are Muslims. They are brave and they have a great love of freedom. And for this they have been fighting these many years. It is possible that there may be a more effective weapon against the Archenes than arms. It is my suggestion, General Van Herp, that we organize an expeditionary force to go into our chin. And once and for all, we have tried that for more than 30 years and it has cost us dearly. We will restore order in our chin, yes. But this time we will do more than that. We will seek to lay a foundation on which we can build a more permanent... And that is what Governor General Van Herp did. The government brought in experts in Muslim and Indonesian society and psychology. And with this knowledge, at last after 35 years of fighting, peace came to Archenes. Ever since our earliest days in the Indies, we have governed through the native rulers. Each of the native rulers has a Dutch civil officer as an advisor. These advisors are called the elder brother of the native rulers. Both the elder brother and the native ruler are paid a salary and an allowance for entertaining. The potentates are of the native nobility. So the great masses of natives feel that they are ruled by their own people. And the Dutch Indies are the most densely populated place in the world. And 50 million of these live on Java and Madura. These people are Indonesians, Chinese, Japanese, Arabians, and a scattering of many other people besides the Europeans. For hundreds of years, these people have been intermarrying. So today, the problem of minorities is one of the most important of all the problems in the Indies. I have been an official of the Netherlands for many years. When the Dutch first came to the Indies, we saw little prospect of bringing enough Dutch women out here to colonize. Many Dutchmen and other Europeans married native women. This explains the great number of Eurasians, persons with mixed European and Asiatic blood. And it also explains the relative lack of race prejudice in the Indies. Eurasians have held many high positions in the government and business. But also many of the Eurasians have had to fight for their existence. The Eurasians with the Chinese formed the middle class of the Indies. The Chinese have had great influence in the establishment. My people came here to the Indies even before the Dutch. I am a Chinese. There are a million and a quarter Chinese in the Indies. Our chief interest here has been trade. But some of my people work in the tin mines and on the great plantations. Although my people have been here for centuries and have intermarried with the Indonesian women, we still remain Chinese. Our Chinese language was lost here in the first generation. But we still retain our family life, our religion, and our customs. Like the Arabians, we have clung to the traditions. I come from another of the great racial groups of Indonesia. I am an Arabian. For centuries my people have had to try to find a living outside of Arabia. Many of my people came here to the Indies before the Dutch and the Chinese. We brought our religion with us. And this we have kept throughout these centuries. We have intermarried with the native women. But we are still Arabians. There is another people who have been important in the Indies. The Japanese. The Japanese came to the islands, but in smaller numbers. They did not come as the Chinese and the Arabians came. The Japanese came for the oil and the tin and the rubber of the Indies. They came to prepare for the day when they would use these things against the rest of the world. Japanese businessmen and fishermen and photographers were everywhere. I remember watching them and wondering as I recall what had happened years ago, I think, up north. Two of our Dutch officials were invited to a dinner gift by the Dutch. That Japanese down there at the far end of the table. Who is he? He's a naval officer of the Japanese warship Kongo. There's something very familiar about him. No, I was thinking the same thing. Have we seen him before? Well, the Kongo has never been to Batavia. No, but probably that officer has. That may be. Tell me, did you ever issue a permit to a Japanese who could look like him? I may have. Wait till he turns full face towards us again. There. I know. I gave him a concession for rubber culture and deep sea fishing on those two small islands. Are we in Memorial? That's it. That's it. And some months later I went out to the islands to see how he was coming along. Remember? I remember. I found no trace of either rubber culture or fishing. But I found that same Japanese sounding and charting the waters around both Avi and Memorial. That's the same man being that made... That is the way it was here for years. We knew what was happening in a way, but we did not know how serious it was. We learned on May the 14th, 1940. Hitler invaded Holland. You know what happened there. Holland was crushed and occupied, and we here in the Indies were left alone. We knew the Japanese had their eyes on us. But our people here, all races and classes joined in our war effort. They were loyal, but they still asked for constitutional changes. In our Volksrad, the Volksrad is the people's council, they asked for political reform. And these they debate as lawful. The Netherlands have fallen under the Nazis, and we of the Indies stand alone. No help can deport coming from the Netherlands to support us against a possible enemy in the Pacific. We must depend on ourselves. We therefore petition that this Volksrad be changed into a full-fledged parliament, that we who will live under the laws make these laws. I thought that would come sooner or later. I don't think they'll get it, though. It's been my observation over a number of years, that the natives are moving closer and closer to a parliamentary setup. It's going to speak again. We further petition, since the Indies have virtually become a self-sustaining entity, that the name of our country be changed from the Netherlands Indies to Indonesia. A new name for the country. I hadn't expected that. That would involve all sorts of complications in the... It is the belief and conviction of my people that an Indie citizenship should be created to be conferred upon all persons, regardless of race, who have reached a certain state of development. Indie citizenship? Why, that's revolutionary. I have an idea that a great many people would support this, even Europeans. These ideas were straws in the wind, but the government said that it could not support them. We were at war, and our mother country was occupied by the Nazis, and we ourselves were in danger of attack. Everyone worked, all but the Japanese. Many of the Japanese businessmen turned out to be spies and military officers. We recall that just before the war broke out in Europe, many of the 7,000 Japanese and the Indies had sailed back to Japan. And now we knew that they took with them all the information they had gathered through the years. Yes, we knew that we must work and work hard to prepare for the blow that we were sure would come from Japan. We needed planes and we needed guns and ships and supplies. Farmers and fighter planes from the United States are flowing into the Netherlands Indies in ever increasing numbers. 17 months ago, the Indies Air Force had 175 old planes. Today it has more than a thousand modern war planes and more are flying in. Nazi parametrucks are pouring in from the United States. Machine guns, machine tools, factory equipment, and shipbuilding tools are coming in by the boatload. A deal for four 10,000 ton warships has been bought in the United States. The Dutch Indies Navy is being expanded every day from its two cruisers, four destroyers, 12 submarines, and four Netherlands Navy ships that escape from their home country are expected. The crews are working feverishly setting up air bases, building air raid shelters, erecting barbed wire entanglements on the beaches and around the airfields, and putting in emplacements for coastal batteries. It was little time to get ready. In September 1940, less than three months after France was crushed and while the German air raids were blasting London, a Japanese commission came to the Indies. They came to make demands for oil and rubber and tin. They came at a time when they thought the Nazis would bomb Britain and the Netherlands government in London into surrender. They made big demands for they thought that if they stayed long enough, they might gain all they wanted in the Indies and more without having to fight for it. We negotiated. We used the time to get ready. London mistook the blitz and did not surrender. And the Japanese went home without what they came for. But we knew then that they would not be long in coming back. The first blow came like the strike of a cobra. I remember the day they reached Java. My husband came running in. Marika, where are you? Here, Peter. Here I am. Oh, Marika. Marika. I thought you would never come back, Peter. Only for a moment, Marika. I had to see you. The Japanese have landed up the coast. They are swarming ashore. Nearly everyone has gone here. I had to wait for you. My marika. It seems that bombs have been falling here for hours. Fliers have been fighting them until they had no more ammunition or gasoline. Coming down for more, going up and coming down again and again, until they themselves were shot down. And the Japanese keep on coming. I have never seen so many bombs. They are bombing Batavia and Samara and Surabaya. They have landed on Borneo and Sumatra. Now they are in Java. We've blown up all the oil wells, every one of them. But they are bringing more and more supplies in the transports. Our airplanes are bombing them everywhere, but they keep on coming. Then they will soon be here. You cannot stay here, Marika. You cannot. Yes, yes. It is my Lord not Marika. Must you go so quickly? I wanted to see you again. Marika, you must leave here. You must go down to... See this. I know it. Go, Peter. Go. My marika. I shall be waiting for you, Peter. I shall be waiting. We'll never come back. The Japanese are here. All around us. We are the water-cursing. The beggars of the sea. We sit here waiting. But our slogan is still, beggars of the sea. Omg. We sit here waiting. Waiting for deliverance. We know that someday the tide will turn. These have emerged as a nation. Every phase of life has changed. The Indies have become more economically independent of the Netherlands than ever before. And the old dependents may never be restored. The will for mutual appreciation and tolerance among the peoples of the Indies, the Dutch, the Indonesians, the Chinese, and the many other peoples. The will to have a voice in their own destiny are keystones of the new country that is arising. Welcome to the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross-currents of life in the Pacific Basin. A reprint of this Pacific Story program is available at the cost of 10 cents. Send 10 cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The address again, University of California Press, Berkeley, California. And directed by Arnold Marquess. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. The principal voice was that of Jana Delos. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.