The once bitter enemies, Netherlands and Indonesia have recently begun exchanging public compliments, friendly trade delegations and full resumption of diplomatic relations.

Trade, as well as politics, makes strange bedfellows: Spain and Castro’s Cuba, Britain and Red China, Israel and West Germany. One of the strangest tie-ups these days is between The Netherlands and its former colony, Indonesia, which severed diplomatic relations in 1960 and seemed headed for a full-scale war. The…

Last week The Netherlands East Indies slapped Japan’s face, when the Netherlands were not willing to increase shipments of rubber, tin, oil and other foods of war.

Last week The Netherlands East Indies slapped Japan’s face, and Japan took it with nothing more than a face-saving tightening of the features.

For months a Japanese commission under the polite but theoretically tough Kenkicho Yoshizawa has tried to get The Netherlands East Indies to promise Japan greatly increased shipments…