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The Dutch Indies Army in late 1941 had been upped from 50,000 to 151,000 intermixed Europeans, Javanese and natives of the Indies' outer islands like the hardy Amboinese. Hidden in the interior jungles are many airdromes, and a prime Dutch defense task is to guard their approaches from the flat, vulnerable coastlands on the north. Says Author McGuire: "The Dutch Army, like its Navy, needs heavy stuff to back it; but in a campaign fought through jungles, across mountains and sploshing in the sawahs [irrigated rice fields], it could probably handle in Java anything likely to come against it."
This week the Jap bombs plopping into Batavia and Surabaya pointed up one of Author McGuire's best ironies. The Indies native, like all Asiatics, is a subtle fellow. He appreciates quality, when & if he finds it in his European masters. "When the Dutch took Malacca, one said to a Portugal captain, mocking him: 'When will you return to govern here again?' The Portuguese answered: 'When your sins are greater than ours.' "