Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-03-05 | Page 15 | Holland may Build East Indian Fleet

10LL1D NWT BUILD EAST II FLEET Fear Is Expressed That the Japanese May Get Foothold Foot-hold in Java EUROPE PREOCCUPIED Independence for Philip pines Would Affect Oriental Or-iental Relations Specla Cab e to The Tribune THE HAGUE Teb "6 The Con servat ve party s nee 1913 in opposi t on to the government and a large sect on of other part es are f ghting strongly for a bill recently introduced nto the pari ament prov d ng a great navy to defend the Dutch East Ind es In Java Sumatra and other s ands Holland has a pojulat on e ght t mes as great as that of the home country It 8 a r ch pr ze nadequately defended The proposed measure would put a spe c al tax on all persons possess ng more than $2" 000 n property or an equ va lent ncome The money obta ned would go to b lid an East Ind an fleet to contain eventually six superdread noughts Possible Help Before the great war Great Br tain and Germany wo Id never have allowed Japan to get a foothold in the Dutch possess ons "With the great nat ons of Europe now preoccup ed the only help the Dutch could looli for n the face of a Japanese attack would come from Austral a or the Un ted States Ne ther the Ph 1 pp nes nor North Austral a would be secure w th a Jap anese naval base in Java If the Un ted States retires from the Ph 1 p-pines p-pines n 1921 one poss ble ally is lost The greatest living expert in the gov ernment of Malay races s Hendnk Col ljn ex Dutch mm ster of war who spent twenty years m the or ent In an in terview he sa d to an American cor respondent If your congress passes the Jones bill with the Clarke amendment giv ing ndependence to the Phihpp nes in Wl there will be serious con sequences in the po sess ons of Eu ropean powers all over the orient. Predicts Failure The movement of 4s a for As at cs is gathering force and as the strongest or ental power the nat onal sts throughout the east look to Japan as the natural leader Fil p no native government would be a fa lure not because the na t ves lack educat on but because they lack character We are grad nally introducing self government into Java begnnng w th village government But full self govern ment such as is seen m Canada will not come for many years, per haps fifty perhaps a hundred If Amer ca sets the example of giv ng independence to her As at c possess ons the nat onal sts m oth er European colon es would at once begin to chafe under the r own restrict ons and there might be a good deal of trouble in more places than one