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Contributed by Brian Foster
People in story: Brian Foster
Location of story: Indonesia
Background to story: Royal Air Force
Article ID: A2004805
Contributed on: 09 November 2003

Before WW2 Indonesia "belonged to" the Dutch and they expected to resume control when the war ended. The native people did not agree and rebelled; British forces were sent to support the Dutch in restoring their authority. When this was secured, the Indonesians still refused to accept Dutch currency, preferring to use the Japanese currency as an act of defiance. As we now had possession of the Japanese presses we simply printed millions of notes which were then issued free to the British forces with the instructions that they must spend this money as if there was and endless supply (which there was!). This made the Japanese currency worthless and forced the local population to fall back on the Dutch currency - probably the first example of the power of economic warfare?

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