The Press MONDAY, JULY 28, 1947. Hopes of Mediation In Indonesia

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25247, 28 July 1947, Page 6

The Press MONDAY, JULY 28, 1947. Hopes of Mediation In Indonesia

The latest cablegrams from Indonesia suggest that although there has been much military activity there has been little fighting. The casualties of the Dutch are stated to be less than 100 and those of the Republicans “ not much higher For what it is worth, this news is encouraging, because the further the regrettable conflict goes the more difficult will be the task of mediation. Although it can be assumed that these efforts will be continued and pressed, the latest reports on their prospects of success are conflicting. Dutch sources quoted in Nanking say that the Netherlands Government has rejected all suggestions for outside mediation. On the other hand, an apparently conciliatory line was taken by the Netherlands Minister of Overseas Territories (Mr M. J. A. Jonkman) when speaking to the Dutch Second Chamber on the offers of Great Britain and the United States: the Dutch Government “would gladly accept “offers of good offices in the Indo-

“ nesian situation ”. His assurance that the Government “ did not want “to resort to extreme measures if “ there were other means ” and his advice that the action must be as restricted as possible also seem to point to a more reasonable Dutch attitude.

The Dutch Government may by now realise that it is impossible to “ restrict ” warfare, once started, to predetermined limits. If it hoped to bring the Republicans to heel more by a show of force than by actual fighting it must by now realise that its hopes were ill-founded. All the conditions of a full-scale colonial war are shaping—unless it is called off very quickly. Since the Dutch have the advantage of modern military equipment, it is not to be doubted that before long they could control the main centres of population and the developed coastal areas. On the other hand their opponents have large resources of manpower, plenty of room to wage a war of* movement, and ideal country to develop harassing guerrilla tactics. The Indonesians have learned the meaning and the menace of “scorched earth”; and the Dutch Government cannot calmly look forward to a military success while the assets which it is fighting for and which are so important to its national economy are destroyed. Perhaps a more compelling reason for a change of heart will be found in the force of world opinion. The Dutch have been shown already that it is overwhelmingly unfavourable. It is generally acknowledged that their patience was tried highly indeed in the long negotiations to implement the Cheribon Agreement; but few will be found to agree that resort to force was justified by delay and evasion. Evert in Holland opinion is sharply divided, and, as a cablegram to-day states, a member of the Dutch Parliament claims that the Dutch Commis-sioners-General to Indonesia did not support the proposal for* military action. Neither the Dutch nor the Indonesians were prepared, apparently, to accept the American and British offers of arbitration made before fighting broke out. It has been suggested that the Dutch should have used United Nations machinery calling for the appointment of an arbitrator by the parties themselves or by the president of the International Court of Justice. Unfortunately the Dutch do not admit that the dispute is between two “ governments They maintain that their military measures are merely “ police action ” concerned with internal order. The claim will be hard to sustain because the Indonesian Republic was specifically recognised in the Cheribon Agreement. Experts on international law appear to be in doubt whether the United- Nations can intervene in a dispute between one sovereign State and another which is only on the way to sovereignty. The reported intention of Australia to move the United Nations to intervene should at least result in an emphatic expression of world opinion that war over such comparatively trivial matters as now divide the Dutch and the Indonesian Republic is unjustified and unjustifiable.