INDONESIA AND HOLLAND

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25207, 11 June 1947, Page 7

INDONESIA AND HOLLAND

PLANS FOR INTERIM GOVERNMENT CRUCIAL STAGE THOUGHT NEAR BATAVIA. June 9. With the release to-day of details of the Indonesian Republic’s countermemorandum to the Dutch suggestion for a federal interim government, reliable Dutch observers say that Indonesia is moving quickly toward a> crucial stage in the 22-month-old political conflict. The counter-memorandum will be considered by members of the Netherlands Commission-General when they reach Batavia from Holland late this week. With the Lieutenant-Governor of the Netherlands East Indies (Dr. H. J. Van Mook), they will make a recommendation to the Netherlands Government which will make a final decision about future action. In their counter-memorandum, the representatives of the Indonesian Republic announced that they were prepared to accept the Dutch proposals for the formation of an interim government, but they thought that New Guinea ought to be included in the state of East Indonesia. The delegation is demanding that the interim government should consist of representatives of the Republic and of East Indonesia and Borneo, that at least half of the members should be representatives of the Republic, and that the. Netherlands Government should take immediate steps to introduce Indonesia as a member of the United Nation*. The defence of the United State* of Indonesia by a national army should be the task of the State itself, but in the intermediate period Holland ahould assist with material and advisers if necessary, and both staffs should determine further co-operation. Meanwhile, Indonesia remains calm, with some heightening tension. A Dutch Army communique to-day reports minor military activity on practically all front* in Java and Sumatra, chiefly in the Sourabaya. Semarang, and Medan perimeter*.