WITHDRAWAL OF FORCES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25253, 4 August 1947, Page 7

WITHDRAWAL OF FORCES

Proposed End To Hostilities PROVISO~MADE by REPUBLICANS

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) BATAVIA, August 3. The Indonesian Republican Government entirely agreed with the proposal in the Security Council for the cessation* of hostilities in Indonesia, According to an official statement broadcast by the Jogjakarta radio. The statement added, as a condition, “that at the beginning, and in order that the proposal might be effectively carried out, troops of both sides should be withdrawn behind the demarcation lines fixed in October, 1946.

“In order to guarantee that there should be no more threats, or breach of the peace, or act of aggression, it is necessary that the Security Council should order the Netherlands to withdraws its troops from the territory of the Indonesian Archipelago. The Republic earnestly appeals to the Security Council to send a commission chosen by the Council, so tuat it can be convinced and see for itself the actual situation in Indonesia, to enable a speedy settlement of the conflict.”

The Republican Government has not yet received the Security Council’s resolution calling for a cessation of hostilities. If it was sent by official cablegram to Batavia, the Republic would not receive the message until it had been forwarded by the Dutch authorities.

The statement accused the Dutch Government of being guilty of breaking the Cheribon agreement, and said the Republic accepted the consequences of that unilateral breaking of relations. Liberated from the bonds that bound her in the position of a member State of the future Federation of Indonesia, the Republic now assumed full liberty of action, so that it might be taken up formally, as a sovereign State, into the family of nations. It was quite prepared, after receiving an invitation to send’representatives to New York, to provide the Security Council with any information necessary.

The Republic expressed its gratitude to Australia and India for having put forward and defended its case