SJAHRIR’S return to Indonesia in mid-November 1931 was somewhat sudden. Speaking with his colleagues at the De Socialist social democrat student club in the Netherlands, the 22-year-old Sjahrir just told them he was going to “a dangerous area.”

Sjahrir apparently had agreed to give in to Muhammad Hatta, then 29 years old, a senior at the Indonesian Association and a friend who took part in discussions at De Socialist. Although he had yet