The nationalist movement among the Indonesian Chinese had its successes. In particular, a number of their grievances were removed. By the end of the second decade of this century, Chinese accused of criminal offences were no longer required to appear before the native courts (which they had found humiliating); Dutch civil law was extended to them for most purposes; and the hated pass and quarter systems were abandoned. Although the last of these meant the removal of what had in the previous century been a major barrier to the assimilation of the Chinese by indigenous Indonesian society, it did not follow that assimilation would now take place, since the elimination of the pass strongly a Chinese group identity. The dominant theme of Chinese political activity in the late colonial period was to press for equality of status for the Chinese with the Europeans, but although some of their disabilities were removed, their most sweeping claim was never conceded by the Dutch. This was the demand that the Chinese as a group should be granted the status of Europeans, a status which had been accorded to all Japanese residents in the Indies in 1899. The only concession which the Dutch made to this demand was to make it a little easier for individual Chinese to achieve this status, but few took advantage of this possibility. Thus the impression given by most of the politically active Chinese was that they were only interested in sharing the privileged position of the Europeans, rather than in breaking down the barriers between Chinese and Indonesians. On the other hand, where colonial law operated to protect the indigenous population, as in the case of the 1975 crown ordinance prohibiting alienation of native land to foreigners, the major Chinese political party in the 193s, the Chung Hwa Hui, did not shrink from claiming that the peranakan Chinese should be given the same rights as Indonesians.