Japan and the Dutch Indies
There have been no protests even from extreme American isolationists against the Allied landings in the Dutch West Indian islands of Curacao and Aruba, and there is no disposition to regard them as a threat to the maintenance of the Pan- American safety belt. But the Dutch possessions in the East Indies present a more formidable problem. Japan, Great Britain and the United States have all taken their stand upon the maintenance of the status quo in the Pacific, and on Monday the British Ambassador in Tokyo re-asserted the British view, and said that his Government had no intention of intervening in the islands. The American Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, has again said in unmistakable terms that forcible interference there would endanger peace in the Pacific —and the American battle fleet is still stationed in full strength at Hawaii. Happily the Dutch authorities in the Netherlands Indies seem to have the situation well in hand. They have seized the German merchant ships which have been lying in the harbours since the outbreak of war, and are arranging for the internment of enemy aliens. If the Germans fail in the efforts they are reported to have made to stir up trouble among the Batavians, the Dutch—whatever happens in Holland— should be able to look after the islands in the Indies for them- selves, and afford no plausible pretext for any ambitious Imperialist Power to offer "protection."
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