THE AGELESS INDIES

Assistant professor of sociology at Yale, Dr. Kennedy is an authority on the native Indonesians, and here summarizes those facts of interest to the general public concerning a part of the world most of us have known little about:- geography, climate, Dutch conquest and the relation between the natives and the Netherlands, national wealth and its development under the Dutch. He compares the colonial policies of British, American and Dutch, to the advantage of the Dutch. He foresees the end of racial imperialism, for a people who have kept their own civilization through successive conquests, and who are groping towards a conception of a ""federal state of Indonesia."" He pictures the Japanese conquest as having as its purpose the conquest of the Dutch not the natives, the acquisition of the areas of production, of trade and the military concessions along the coasts, whence they can harry the lines of supply. He says that the Indies must be retaken ultimately, and meantime the sea routes kept under attack, and he pleads for an ultimate revision of the attitude to colonial possessions, and the end of profiteering at their expense. A useful reference book, but uninspired.