Dutch ex-servicemen arrive in Auckland as immigrants from the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) in November 1949. After the Second World War Dutch immigrants, including those from Indonesia, were encouraged to come to New Zealand. Indonesian nationalists had declared independence in 1945. This led to a war with the Dutch, who had tried to re-establish their authority after the surrender of the Japanese. Some of the immigrants were ex-servicemen who had been demobilised in Indonesia after fighting the nationalists. Others were Dutch settlers in Indonesia who had been imprisoned by the Japanese during the war and wanted to escape the latest fighting.