AFTER the defeat of Japan, in early January 1946, Lt. General Sir Philip Christison, the Allied commander, decided to organize military tribunals against Japanese war criminals. "The military court to be established is a Dutch court, because the Netherlands is the sovereign state in Indonesia. Therefore it is not valid to establish a British military court," Soeloeh Merdeka newspaper wrote on January 4, 1946.

To carry out the plan, at a meeting in Singapore, the Dutch and British made an agreement which stipulated that very important matters would be examined by the British court. The rest, depending on the case; if it was about British interests, the British court would examine it, and if it was related to the interests of the Dutch, the Dutch court would examine it.

"If the English court will examine a case that concerns the interests of both parties, namely England-Dutch, then two Dutch delegates will be seated on the English court panel and vice versa," Penjoeloeh newspaper wrote on January 10, 1946.

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