A Mild Little Boy

In Istanbul some 30 years ago, a baby was born to a Dutch antique dealer named Westerling and his Greek wife. Frere Adolphe, who afterwards taught young Raymond Westerling in Istanbul's French Catholic St. Joseph school, recalled that he was "a mild, well-mannered, moon-faced little boy." Raymond's later development was not what Frere Adolphe might have expected: he became the notorious "Turk" Westerling, a reckless, ruthless professional soldier and a fanatical Moslem.

During the war, Westerling fought with the Australian troops in North Africa, later organized a Dutch commando force in the East Indies. He was kicked out of the Dutch army in 1948, began to recruit his own private army to fight against the new Indonesian Republic. His 10,000 troops, mostly Moslem extremists and deserters from the Dutch army, call themselves "The Heavenly Host." Recently, Westerling sent 600 of his men on a raid of West Java's Bandung (TIME, Feb. 6); he boasted that he would conquer all of Indonesia. But last week, Westerling's military future looked dim.

In Singapore, Police Chief Alastair McEwan had been tipped off that Westerling would turn up "very soon" to buy arms and sign up recruits for the Heavenly Host. McEwan arrested the swashbuckling outlaw for entering the British Crown colony illegally. Singapore police carelessly put him into a prison cell with an Indonesian student named Haris Porkas. Half an hour later, Porkas was carried out with a broken jaw. Westerling said that Porkas had provoked the fight. When Westerling offered his hand, Porkas spat in it.

Officials of the United States of Indonesia promptly demanded that Westerling be sent to Jakarta, to be tried for "crimes perpetrated by him in Indonesia." Singapore has no extradition agreement with the U.S.I., and Westerling is a Dutch national. If he were deported to Holland, The Netherlands would have the responsibility of keeping him out of Indonesia. Westerling's fate was discussed at the highest levels in London, The Hague and Jakarta. Fearful of offending their partner in the Netherlands-Indonesian Union, the Dutch will probably advise the British to turn Westerling over to the U.S.I.

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