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In Java, the five-month-old Indonesian Republic of President Soekarno and Premier Sutan Sjahrir wanted full political independence, not dominion status in a Netherlands Commonwealth. According to the A.P.'s Vern Haugland, back from a tour of Java's hinterland, the Republic was well-entrenched and popular.
In Batavia last week "moderate" Premier Sjahrir agreed to cooperate with British Lieut. General Sir Philip Christison in curbing "extremists," rounding up Japanese remnants, and evacuating Europeans who had been interned by the Japs.
Falling Reservoir. Indonesia was an embarrassment to Britain in her own Asiatic sphere. If Premier Sjahrir's Government were recognized, repercussions would be felt in India, Burma, Malaya. On the other hand, so long as Indonesia remained unsettled, other pressing imperial problems—dangerous rice shortages, a crippling lack of transport, labor unrest—would be sharpened.
The U.S., too, had a stake in Southeast Asia. Its Lend-Lease weapons were being used against patriots. The American "reservoir of good will," which Wendell Willkie found among Asia's masses, was drying up. Cried the bitter Indian press: "American sympathy for freedom is merely platonic. ... At least the Japanese sought to set up some form of self-government in every Asiatic country. All you white men seek to do is reinstall prewar exploiters, imperialists, and burra sahibs [great masters]. . . ."