INDONESIA: Little Brown Thamboe

Once upon a time there was a lean, dark-brown Malayan and his name was Charles Thamboe. When he was a little boy the British taught him to speak beautiful English and later gave him a lovely job as a radio broadcaster. And then wasn’t he grand?

When Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaya, gobbled up his country, Thamboe and some of his British bosses escaped to Java. By and by Java fell and he met the Japanese again. Little Brown Thamboe said, “Oh, please, Mr. Tiger, don’t eat me up, and I’ll speak my beautiful English for you.” So Thamboe started writing Japanese propaganda, and the Japanese were very proud of his nice words.

But Thamboe hedged a little. He soon found that he could slip through bits of military information useful to the British, American and Dutch tigers. When he boasted of mighty naval installations at Semarang, the Japanese were pleased. So were the British; their bombers thoroughly blasted Semarang. Later Thamboe bragged about vast rice stores at Bangkok; B-29s blew them up.

When the war was “over” in Java, Thamboe saw that some of the tigers were still fighting. This was meat to Charles Thamboe. He started a Dutch-baiting Indonesian newspaper, called the Independent, which he distributes among British soldiers in Java, telling them what imperialist devils the Dutch are. At the same time he is careful to praise the British. He doesn’t know how long his latest game of wits with the lords of the jungle can last, though the British so far have not suppressed his venture.

Little Brown Thamboe knows he fares best when the tigers are biting each other’s tails; if he has to leave Java, he wants to go back to Malaya and agitate for freedom there. It would be fine with him if nothing is left of the tigers but a great big pool of melted butter.