DEFENCE OF REPUBLIC

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25246, 26 July 1947, Page 9

DEFENCE OF REPUBLIC

“No Law Without Freedom”

DR. SOEKARNO’S APPEAL BATAVIA, July 24. Another dramatic radio appeal to the Indonesian people to rise and fight for the Republic was made to-night by the Indonesian President (Dr. Soekarno). He said that the time had come for the Indonesian people to defend every inch of their soil and to recapture what had been lost. He added that the Dutch claimed that they wanted to restore law and order in the Republic, but there could be no law and order without freedom. Law and order was born of liberty. If slavery were justice, then there was no justice in the world.

Dr. Soekarno said: “Let each home, river and forest be a fortress, and take back every inch of soil occupied by the Dutch.”

Addressing his appeal especially to the youth of the nation, Dr. Soekarno said that the struggle would require many sacrifices. ‘‘But have confidence that you are fighting for justice because it is clear that the present Dutch action is not what they call a police measure, but a true colonial war to subjugate the Indonesian people again,” he declared.

The Jogjakarta radio to-night broadcast a formal request from the Prime Minister (Mr Sjarifuddin) to the Australian Consul-General (Mr B. C. Ballard) at Batavia asking him to represent the interests of the Indonesian Republic with those other neutrals with whom diplomatic relations existed before the outbreak of hostilities.

Mr Sjarifuddin suggested that as no other means of communication existed, Mr Ballard should reply by radio. In the event of the reply being in the affirmative, the Republican Government was prepared to facilitate any other permissible means of establishing direct contact’with Mr Ballard.