Dr. Hermann Lautensach has made an outstanding contribution to the study of Korea. Since his publications are mainly in German geographical periodicals, they may have escaped the attention of many Korean and American scholars.

Dr. Lautensach is one of the best trained German geographers. His reputation was established by his classic work on Portugal. He became closely associated with German geopoliticians and wrote articles for the Zeitschrift für geopolitik. He was one of the authors with Haushofer, Obst and Maull of the Bausteine zar geopolitik (Berlin: Kurt Vonwinckel Vertag., 1928).

Every educational system, whether extant or planned, is an inseparable part of the social structure of the country in which it is, or it is to be, applied. Education is dependent much more than is generally realized upon prevalent political, economic and cultural trends and in turn, reflects these trends. This means that while it is possible to describe an educational system as an isolated cultural phase, it is not possible to understand it properly apart from the total social context. It must be seen and evaluated as a part of a whole.

There has been much speculation as to the degree to which the Indonesian revolt reflects Japanese war-time propaganda. There has been much less mention in this connection of the one and a quarter million Chinese residents in the Indies. Yet, ten years ago many Netherlands colonial officials regarded this community as a fecund source of discontent. They were not altogether inconsistent when they complained, on the one hand, of Chinese “imperialism” and, on the other, of Chinese communism. Evidence of the former they saw, more especially, in the activities of the Chinese Bureau for Overseas Affairs in Nanking. These activities were intended, of course, to strengthen the loyalty of nationals abroad and to give them that protection of the motherland which they had been lacking for centuries. But it was inevitable that they should reflect, and to some extent feed, the resentment over the discriminations experienced by these nationals in every part of the Nan Yang (South Seas). The pamphlets distributed in the 'thirties by the Bureau harped on the “unequal treatment” of Chinese abroad, on the cruelty of many of the immigration laws–including those of the Indies. They did not go in for theoretical discussions and did not advocate socialism. Neither did the textbooks used in many Chinese schools or the subsidized Chinese newspapers, though some of the Shanghai-trained teachers may have been communists.

Once more the interest of the world is focused upon Indonesia, and the recent uprisings there are of increasing concern to all who have known this country.

During the war our sympathy was with the Indonesians who were under the domination of Japan, and a sigh of relief was felt when the Japanese armies in southeastern Asia started to surrender. For this was a day of delivery! This was a day of freedom—and the echoes of the Atlantic Charter promising freedom to all peoples of the world were still resounding in our ears! The victorious Allies would be received with open arms and would be given a hearty welcome!

As in the world at large, so in the Netherlands Indies, labor law as such is a relatively modern development. Within the last score of years the legislative arm of the Indies government has attempted to satisfy the labor demands of an ever-expanding agricultural, commercial and industrial economy, protecting at the same time the conflicting interests of the diverse elements of the population. The result has been a growth from simple contract law to a complexity of provisions respecting labor relations that were only beginning to be fashioned into a unified whole at the time of the Japanese invasion. The future labor law will undoubtedly be built upon this foundation. Hence an exposition of the recent past should prove the best approach to postwar needs in the field of labor.

The possibility of expanding the sea-fisheries of Indonesia is a question of much greater importance to the future of the region than might be supposed from western experience, as will be shown by the following considerations:

The population of the East Indies is already very great in proportion to the amount of fertile land potentially available, and is increasing rapidly. The average diet on Java now contains a very low proportion of certain of the essential food-substances called amino-acids, which are most abundant in proteins of animal origin. It is possible that sub-critical deficiencies of these amino-acids, sufficient to reduce general vitality and well-being, are already widespread in the region. These amino-acids are the ones least abundant in the produce of crop-plants which yield the highest returns of energy-foods. Expanded production of these special protein-components from the Indonesian land-surface would therefore necessarily be accomplished at the expense of the potential production of food-calories.