It was mid-September before news of the declaration of independence spread to the outer islands, and many Indonesians far from the capital Jakarta did not believe it. As the news spread, most Indonesians came to regard themselves as pro-Republican, and a mood of revolution swept across the country. External power had shifted; it would be weeks before Allied Forces shipping entered Indonesia (owing in part to boycotts and strikes, in Australia, on coaling, loading and manning Dutch shipping from Australia where the Netherlands East Indies Government in exile was based). These strikes were only fully broken in July 1946. The Japanese, on the other hand, were required by the terms of the surrender to both lay down their arms and maintain order; a contradiction that some resolved by handing weapons to Japanese-trained Indonesians.