Het Nieuwsblad voor Sumatra (28 Oct 1953, p.2): at its 25 October conference the Jakarta women's organisation Gerwis resolved on 'Menteng 31' (supporting its return to youth but asking the government to rehouse the girls living there) and on a forced marriage of a 60-year-old man to a 14-year-old schoolgirl, expressing
De Locomotief, 17 Dec 1953: about a hundred women from seven Semarang associations, led by Perwari and including Gerwis, ride 40 becaks to the Governor's Office to petition for a marriage law securing women's legal position and for a freeze on the 1952 regulation giving pensions to second-to-fourth wives. A Gedung Rakj
Daily Mirror (Sydney), 18 December 1953, p. 11, a page of national and foreign news briefs. Only one item concerns Indonesia: a short AP report from Jakarta that 2,000 sarong-clad Indonesian women jammed the capital's streets demanding a government ban on polygamy and child marriage. No organisation is named. The other
Java-Bode, 18 December 1953, p. 2: news column reporting that a hundred women from seven Semarang women's associations, led by Perwari and joined by Gerwis, presented a petition to Central Java governor Budiono supporting a Perwari central board motion. Other snippets (hospital openings, Davao vice-consulate) are unrel
Indische Courant voor Nederland, 23 Dec 1953, p. 3: over 2,000 women led by Perwari march in Jakarta against the amendment of Government Regulation 19 on marriage conditions and demand a marriage law; in Semarang, seven women's groups including Gerwis petition the Central Java governor.
News digest in De Vrije Pers (31 Dec 1953). Colonel Dr. Moestopo, for the "Corps of Fighting Women", defended polygamy and the pension rule for up to four wives, arguing withdrawal would stimulate prostitution. Gerwis is not named, but this is context for the contemporary polygamy debate.