While the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) was under Japanese occupation during the Second World War, political questions about the colony’s future did not disappear—they intensified. For many in the Dutch exile administration, the war was a time to consider how to reassert sovereignty after liberation. But for others, particularly reform-minded officials and Indonesians living abroad, the war offered a chance to rethink the colonial relationship altogether. The resulting tensions revealed a growing divide not just between the Netherlands and its colony, but within Dutch society itself.
Some of the most influential reformers during this period were not Indonesian nationalists in exile, but Dutch officials born and raised in the Indies. Figures like Hubertus van Mook and Charles van der Plas represented a generation of so-called Indos—Dutch or mixed-descent citizens who had deep roots in the archipelago and who understood the growing strength of Indonesian political aspirations. Many of them saw reform not as a concession, but as a necessity to preserve any Dutch presence in the postwar order.
During the war, Van Mook proposed a federal model for a postwar Indonesia, one that would include Indonesian representatives and allow for regional autonomy. While he envisioned continued ties to the Netherlands, he accepted that power would have to be shared. He was not alone. Other administrators and Dutch-Indonesian civil servants shared similar ideas, shaped by their proximity to local political realities before the war.
This contrasted sharply with the view held by many in the Dutch government-in-exile in London. Prime Minister Gerbrandy and his ministers feared that any hint of autonomy would be interpreted as weakness. They viewed the war as an interruption of Dutch rule, not its transformation. Efforts to engage Indonesian voices—even cautiously—were often blocked or discouraged. When Van Mook suggested preparing for negotiations with Indonesian leaders, he was met with resistance, and his authority was temporarily suspended.
Meanwhile, some Indonesians abroad—students, sailors, and exiled professionals—began forming their own informal political networks. Although scattered and lacking a formal exile movement, they were attuned to developments in India and the broader anti-colonial mood. Allied leaders, especially in Australia and the United States, were increasingly sympathetic to such sentiments, particularly under the influence of the Atlantic Charter, which promised self-determination for colonised peoples.
Australia, hosting many Dutch and NEI evacuees, became a quiet site of political observation and, for some, informal dialogue. Although the Australian government did not officially recognise Indonesian independence until much later, there was growing discomfort in political and union circles about reimposing European colonial rule after the war.
The wartime exile period thus became a crucible for competing ideas about Indonesia’s future. Reformist Dutch voices, Indonesian aspirations, Allied pressure, and colonial conservatism all collided. The Dutch–Indonesian relationship would ultimately be transformed by conflict and diplomacy after 1945, but the outlines of that transformation were already emerging in exile.
This article is part of a six-part series on Dutch–Australian wartime cooperation. For related perspectives, see:
- Between secrecy and survival: Australia’s frustration with Dutch neutrality on the eve of war.
- Divided in exile: tensions between Batavia and London in the Dutch war effort.
- Reform or restoration? Political tensions over the future of the Netherlands East Indies during wartime exile.
- Frustration and fortitude: the Dutch purchasing mission and wartime tensions in Australia.
- From indifference to diplomacy: how the war transformed Dutch–Australian foreign relations
- A Dutch military and civil inventory in Australia – March 1942 snapshot
References:
Jack Ford, Allies in a Bind: Australia and the Netherlands East Indies in the Second World War, CQU Press, 2001
R. W. A. van den Berg, Unchained Interests, Netherlands Staff College Monograph, 2021
