Vossische Zeitung
- Communist Putsch on Java
- Garibaldi and Macia Arrested
- Anti-Italian Demonstrations in Yugoslavia
This edition of the Vossische Zeitung carried an early telegram on a communist rising in West Java. It reported that insurgents had seized the telephone exchange in Batavia's lower town, attacked the prison, cut wires and wrecked the railway near Bandung, and that the Dutch authorities were not yet in control. From Paris the paper reported that Ricciotti Garibaldi and Colonel Macià had been arrested after a police-staged confrontation. It called this a sensational turn in the Garibaldi affair. A third item passed on a report from Ljubljana that South Slavs were fleeing Italy for Yugoslavia because they feared mass deportation to Sicily or Africa.
Translation
Communist Putsch on Java
A communist uprising of considerable scale has broken out in West Java. The insurgents occupied the telephone exchange in the lower town of Batavia. An attack on the prison was repulsed. Near Bandung the railway line was destroyed at four points. The telephone wires were cut. The communists did not let the first train from Menes depart. The authorities are not yet in control of the situation. A few Dutch officials were killed. The insurgents are armed with firearms.
Garibaldi and Macia Arrested
This afternoon Ricciotti Garibaldi and Colonel Macia were arrested in Paris, after a confrontation, carefully prepared by the police, had first taken place between Garibaldi and the leader of the Catalan putschists, who had been brought to Paris under special security measures. The impetus for this sensational turn in the Garibaldi affair was a renewed search of his villa in Nice.
Anti-Italian Demonstrations in Yugoslavia
The "Prawda" reports from Ljubljana that South Slavs from Italy are arriving in Yugoslavia in great numbers. They have fled, it says, because the Italian authorities are having all respected citizens of South Slav nationality rounded up in order to deport them to Sicily or Africa.
Context
The West Java rising in its first hours
The Vossische Zeitung's telegram described the communist rising that began in West Java on 12 November 1926 while its outcome was still unclear. It reported that the telephone exchange in Batavia's lower town had been seized, that an attack on the prison had been repulsed, that the railway near Bandung had been sabotaged and that several Dutch officials had been killed. It also said the authorities were not yet in control. Later historical accounts confirm that the revolt broke out in Batavia and was followed by similar uprisings in Bantam (Banten) and West Sumatra. Banten in particular is remembered as the centre of the 1926 revolt. Historians have generally judged the uprisings associated with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) more coolly than this early report did. They describe the revolts as ill-prepared, poorly organised and easily suppressed. The paper's picture of a large, armed and uncontained rising reflects the alarm of the first hours, not that later assessment.
How the Dutch colonial government responded
The report admitted that the authorities had lost control, and that helps explain the severity of what followed. After the rising began, the Council of the Dutch East Indies met in emergency session. Governor General A. C. D. de Graeff insisted that large numbers of communist leaders across the colony be rounded up as soon as possible. Roughly 4,500 people were accused of taking part directly in the uprising and were imprisoned or sentenced to death. The government also turned to mass exile. In 1927 it opened the Boven-Digoel camp in remote Papua to intern communists after the failed uprisings in Java and Sumatra. The rising this telegram described therefore became the occasion for a lasting system of political internment in the Indies.
The Catalan plot behind the Paris arrests
The "Catalan putschists" in the Paris report were the followers of Francesc Macià. In 1926 they planned a military invasion of Catalonia from France to win its independence. Armed columns were to cross the border, occupy Olot and proclaim the Catalan Republic. The operation, known as the plot of Prats de Molló, was a complete failure because the French police had been warned in advance. Macià was arrested on 4 November at the country house he was occupying, ten days before this report appeared. Most of the detainees were expelled from France, but about twenty men regarded as the masterminds were transferred to Paris to stand trial. This explains why the paper described the Catalan leader as having been brought to Paris under special security.
Ricciotti Garibaldi's double role
Garibaldi's real position explains the "sensational turn" the paper reported. Ricciotti Garibaldi Jr, grandson of the hero of Italian unification, was among the Italian exiles in Paris who joined Macià. He was not really an anti-fascist fighter but a double agent serving the political police. A biography of Macià calls him a spy of Fascist Italy whose help allowed the French to abort the plot. The paper said the confrontation and arrests followed a renewed search of his villa in Nice. That detail is the paper's own account. Garibaldi was later one of two Italians tried in Paris alongside sixteen Catalans. The French court treated Macià leniently: he received two months in jail and a fine of 100 francs.
Fascist Italy's Slovenes and Croats and the flight to Yugoslavia
The third item passes on a report in Prawda, datelined Ljubljana, that the Italian authorities were rounding up prominent South Slavs for deportation to Sicily or Africa. The paper presents that specific claim as a secondhand press report. The wider pressure behind the reported flight is well documented. After Italy annexed the Julian March, it banned Slovene and Croat in administration from March 1923 and in the law courts from October 1925. The Law on Associations of 1925 and the laws on public demonstrations and public order of 1926 were used to shut down Slavic organisations. In 1926 the government also announced the Italianization of German, Slovene and Croat surnames. As a result of this repression, more than 100,000 Slovenes and Croats emigrated from Italian territory between the two world wars, most of them to Yugoslavia. The Prawda report shows one moment of that emigration.
Original
Kommunistenputsch auf Java
Auf Westjava ist ein kommunistischer Aufstand größeren Umfangs ausgebrochen. Das Telephonkontor in der Unterstadt von Batavia wurde durch die Aufrührer besetzt. Ein Angriff auf das Gefängnis wurde abgeschlagen. Bei Bandung wurde die Eisenbahnstrecke an vier Stellen zerstört. Die Telephondrähte wurden zerschnitten. Die Kommunisten ließen den ersten Zug aus Menes nicht abfahren. Die Behörden sind noch nicht Herr der Situation. Ein paar holländische Beamte wurden getötet. Die Aufständischen sind mit Feuerwaffen ausgerüstet.
Garibaldi und Macia verhaftet
Heute nachmittag wurden Ricciotti Garibaldi und Oberst Macia in Paris verhaftet, nachdem vorher eine von der Polizei gut vorbereitete Konfrontierung des unter besonderen Sicherheitsmaßnahmen nach Paris gebrachten Führers der katalanischen Putschisten mit Garibaldi stattgefunden hatte. Anstoß zu dieser sensationellen Wendung der Affäre Garibaldi hat eine nochmalige Haussuchung in seiner Villa in Nizza gegeben.
Italienfeindliche Kundgebungen in Südslawien
Die " Prawda " meldet aus Laibach, daß in Südslawien massenhaft Südslawen aus Italien eintreffen. Sie flüchteten, weil die italienischen Be örden alle angesehenen Bürger südslawischer Nationalität zusammentreiben lasse, um sie nach Sizilien oder Afrika zu deportieren.