Mallaby's death explained<\/p>\n
The city profile of Surabaya (The Jakarta Post, May 31) raises
\nonce again the question of the death of Brigadier A. Mallaby,
\nBritish commanding officer there on Oct. 30, 1945. This is a
\nperennial controversy.<\/p>\n
A British researcher, J. G. A. Parrott, whose material I have
\nlooked at in the Imperial War Museum, London, has what seems to
\nme the most convincing case on the matter. Parrott corresponded
\nwith important survivors of the incident in which Mallaby was
\nkilled, notably his two adjutants, Captain Smith and Captain Shaw
\nas well as Major K. Venu Gopal, officer commanding D. Coy 6
\nMahrattas, the British Indian army unit at the center of events
\non Oct. 30. D Company was holed up in a city center building and
\nfacing off against a large crowd of Indonesians, many of them
\narmed.<\/p>\n
Parrott also considered the writings of Roeslan Abdulgani, a
\nkey Indonesian player, and later a senior diplomat and
\npolitician.<\/p>\n
The controversy centers on whether or not Mallaby gave orders
\nfor 6 Mahrattas to fire on the crowd besieging the building they
\nwere in. Roeslan believed he did, but both Smith and Gopal
\nthought otherwise. Gopal told Parrott with refreshing candour
\nthat the order to fire was his and his alone. D Company, the
\nIndian asserted, was hopelessly outnumbered and, moreover, could
\nnot accept that if they laid down their arms they would be
\nguaranteed safe conduct in what was a city in tumult.<\/p>\n
Smith, for his part, insisted that Mallaby did not give any
\norder to open fire, and that had Mallaby done so, he would have
\nremembered it when, shortly afterwards, he wrote his report.<\/p>\n
Captain Smith also insisted -- and he was by Brigadier
\nMallaby's side -- that the commanding officer was killed by an
\nIndonesian teenager who approached their staff car in the
\nconfusion. Smith and Shaw escaped by swimming across the Kali Mas
\nriver.<\/p>\n
After considering the evidence, Parrott concluded that
\nMallaby's handling of the situation in Surabaya was incompetent,
\nhis \"men being deployed in penny packets\". This may be correct
\nfrom the military point of view, but it must be remembered that
\nBritish forces had arrived in Java in September with absolutely
\nno forward intelligence, a fact bemoaned by Lord Louis
\nMountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia on whose
\norders the troops were here in the first place.<\/p>\n
What is not in doubt, in my mind at least, is that the British
\nresponse to the unfortunate Mallaby's death was disastrous, as
\nindeed much of it was elsewhere in Java and Sumatra in 1945-1946.<\/p>\n
DAVID JARDINE<\/p>\n
Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/mallabys-death-explained-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }