User:MargaretRDonald/sandbox/Black armada

World War II
On the outset of Japanese bombing, key Dutch and Indonesian personnel from the Netherlands Indies administration including van Mook and van der Plas managed to escape to Australia, and there, were permitted to set up Netherlands Indies Government-in-exile. The Dutch were concerned that the political prisoners at Tanah-Merah, on the Digul River, in West New Guinea would both cooperate with the Japanese and form a nucleus hostile to Dutch reoccupation of the Indies and with the co-operation of the Australian Government, the prisoners of Tanah-Merah were sent to Australia to be interned. Once in Australia, the PKI was able to work with the CPA, trades-unions and not unsympathetic members of the Australian Government. Thus, when time came for the Dutch to re-occupy the Indies, waterside workers at Australian ports boycotted Dutch shipping, supplies and services, thereby allowing much needed time for nationalist republican forces in Indonesia, to start the process of taking back their land.