Saying goodbye to the islands
Alan Campbell
THE ADMIRAL'S BABY by Laurens van der Post John Murray, £19.99, pp. 322 ho now remembers the Dutch East Indies? The third largest empire in the world, jewel of the Dutch Crown, was invaded and occupied by the Japanese in 1942 and, after the Japanese surrender in August 1945, gave way by degrees to Indonesian independence. But progress towards independence was checkered, hazardous, and at times violent, especially in its early stages. Colonel van der Post, as he then was, emerging from a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java, found himself playing a key role — at times the key role — in the immediately post-war situation. This book tells his story, follow- ing on an earlier account of his experiences as a prisoner of war.
Not sharing Sir Laurens van der Post's philosophical outlook, I approached this book with reserve, especially as I knew that he would be critical of my own boss of those days, Lord Killearn. However, I found myself deeply impressed by the courage and fortitude of the author as well as by the political sagacity of his advice to successive military and diplomatic eminences in South-East Asia. His style of writing is sometimes discursive but, aside from the mystical whimsy, the narrative is lucidly told in a manner that belies the author's now advanced age.
In August 1945, when the British took over responsibility for South-East Asia from the Americans, there was a wide gap between the Dutch perception of the situa- tion and the actual position on the ground. The Dutch — or at any rate most of their leading figures — thought that the British would simply reoccupy the territories and then hand them over so that they might hang the leading 'rebels' such as Sukarno and Hatta and then resume their imperial rule. In fact this was never even remotely possible. The British had not the available forces, let alone the will, to reoccupy Java and Sumatra, and the Indonesian indepen- dence movement was so strong that it would have required a determined colonial war to crush it — if indeed it could be crushed.
Van der Post early recognised the solid basis of the Indonesian independence movement and the danger that, through our sympathy with the Dutch, we might be dragged into an expensive and probably futile colonial war on their behalf. On the other hand he also understood the bitter- ness and frustration of the Dutch at being denied the resumption in full sovereignty of their colonial possessions when they saw the British re-establishing themselves in Malaya and Borneo. Fortunately, van der Post's knowledge and experience were quickly recognised by Mountbatten, who sent him to London and the Hague in order to explain his views at the highest level. He makes light of the hardship involved in this expedition but it clearly imposed on him great physical and psycho- logical strain on top of what he was suffer- ing after over three years as a prisoner of war.
I found the account of the earlier part of van der Post's experiences the most enjoy- able. I thought also that his vignettes of the leading personalities in this early period were perceptive as well as sympathetic Mountbatten, Admiral Patterson (the `Baby' in the book's title), General Christi- son and Sir Archibald Clark Kerr. In the later period van der Post evidently found the then British Consul-General, Gilbert Mackereth, a most agreeable and under- standing boss. On the other hand he dis- liked Killearn, who ignored him in a markedly hurtful way.
My own role was to act as Killearn's most junior diplomat or dog's body, fetch- ing and carrying papers, enciphering or deciphering telegrams, translating texts, and ministering to the wants of my master. Thus I had only a worm's eye view of the scene in late 1946. By that time van der Post by his own account was hated by the Dutch, so it was not surprising that Killearn thought it best to keep him at a distance. KiReam, it is true, was not everybody's favourite. Of elephantine stature, he would tusk aside anyone in his path, and was formidably effective in getting his own way. He would, I think, have defended himself against van der Post's strictures by saying that he did after all successfully carry out his instructions, which were to jolly the Dutch and Indonesians into some kind of agreement, however precarious, in order to permit the withdrawal of British and Indian forces. The Linggadjati agreement was not all that easily achieved. Like van der Post, Killearn found Sjahrir very attractive and the latter responded by giving him a pony for his young children (a lusty stallion which caused havoc in the great man's stables at Bukit Serene). And he too found the Dutch colonials a difficult lot.
This is a handsome book which tells a good story. I was only doubtful about including the long military report written in 1946. This is a bit out of balance with the rest.
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