A.R. Baswedan got to know Liem Koen Hian in 1932, when both of them attended a soccer game in Surabaya. Liem was the chief editor of Sin Tit Po, a pro-Indonesia Chinese newspaper. Liem offered Baswedan a job as an editor. For Baswedan it was a blessing that he always felt grateful for, as he wrote in a note in 1939.

“Even if I can be employed as a volunteer, with no salary at all, I will be very happy to accept it, as long as I could sit next