To SUMMARISE Indonesian social structure prior to the Japanese occupation, one may say that Europeans' held the controlling positions both in government and in business, the Chinese monopolised most of the trade within the country, and the native aristocracies ran local government. Among the indigenous population, only the nobility had the right to Western education. Two points require emphasis. First, the government was supported, in the last analysis, by sanctions which did not have their roots in the population of the archipelago. The police and the Netherlands Indies Army were Dutch-officered. Second, the system of education had three complementary results. It produced a few intellectuals capable of understanding the Western world which controlled them and the Eastern world from which they sprang. Furthermore, by teaching them a common language and way of thought it broke the monopoly of inter-regional communication previously held by the rulers; it was now possible for the intellectuals, no matter from what part of Indonesia they came, to unite in opposition to the government. By and large, the few who were given posts consonant with their qualifications caused the authorities no trouble, but the others turned to political agitation.2 On the other hand, the masses of the people with little or no education were vulnerable to the arguments of these intellectuals. However well the government tried to shield the people from the outside world, some dislocations there had to be, and the reasons for these could not be explained in traditional terms. This, of course, gave the Nationalists their opportunity. This is not to say that they misled their audience; the point is that the peasants had no means of knowing whether the