ACCUSATIONS BY REPUBLIC

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25243, 23 July 1947, Page 7

ACCUSATIONS BY REPUBLIC

INDONESIAN LEADERS’ BROADCASTS

SOEKARNO APPEALS TO MOSLEMS’ FAITH

BATAVIA, July 21. After the Republican Cabinet meeting at Jogjakarta, the Indonesian Premier (Mr Sjarifuddin) in his broadcast call to arms to the Indonesian people, asked: “Who was it who rejected the proposals arising from the negotiations of April, 1946? Who was it who returned in January, 1947, with another interpretation of the Cheribon agreement from Holland after it had been initialled in November, 1946?” It was the Dutch, he claimed, who had violated the truce on the demarcation lines. They said that they wanted to restore peace and order, but what did they regard as peace and order? “Think of what happened in Celebes and Bali,” he added. Just when England had given freedom to India and was approaching it in Burma, the Dutch were beginning a colonial war in Indonesia, said Mr Sjarifuddin. Indonesia was a nation now. It was free, with its own Government, and would never again recognise any other Government as it had done during its bitter experience of the Dutch and Japanese occupations. In a radio broadcast from Jogjakarta to-night, the Indonesian President (Dr. Soekarno) appealed to those who loved peace in the world to solve the Indonesian problem without war. He said that the Republic was prepared to put its case before the United Nations. The Indonesian case would be based on the principles of freedom, liberty, humanity and faith in mankind.

Dr. Soekarno told the Indonesian people that if they were conscious of those ideals their God would show them the way “in this holy Moslem month” to safety and independence. “We shall win. We must win. We are sure we shall win becatise of our two years’ sacrifice of blood, goods and fields, even sometimes our honour and security,” he said. Dr. Soekarno ended his broadcast with an appeal to the people of Java and Sumatra, and even those from Achin, in north Sumatra, to Papua, to combine their energy and will to defend the Republic.