INDONESIAN DISPUTE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25271, 25 August 1947, Page 7

INDONESIAN DISPUTE

Inconclusive Debate By Security Council

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 9.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, Aug. 22. After another day of inconclusive debate, which was accompanied by a bewildering series of resolutions modifying the previous proposals, the United Nations Security Council was faced to-night with what the “New York Times” described as a complete breakdown in its efforts to achieve a settlement of the Indonesian dispute. Colonel W. R. Hodgson (Australia) submitted a jc»nt Australian and Chinese resolution, providing for a commission of observers, comprising consular representatives of Governments which are members of the Council, to report to the Council on the situation m Indonesia. He also submitted an Australian resolution requesting the Indonesian and Dutch Governments to submit all matters in dispute to arbitration by a commission consisting of one arbitrator selected by the Indonesians, one by the Netherlands, and one by the Council. The United States submitted a third resolution, suggesting that the Council should tender its good offices to the parties and express its readiness, if the parties so requested, to assist in a settlement through a committee consisting of three members of the Council. Soviet Criticism

Mr Andrei Gromyko (Russia) tonight made a speech which amounted to a flat rejection of the three proposals, which he contended would all result in by-passing the United Nations. He said that three of the Consuls, those of Britain, France and the United States, represented countries favourable to the Netherlands, which he described as the guilty party. Mr Gromyko said that the proposed commission of observers should be representative either of all members of the Council, or members chosen by the Council on an equitable basis. A commission of observers should be constituted similarly, and not be partly designated by the parties to the disP The debate was adjourned until Monday. , xl _ x It was reported yesterday that the United States, having withdrawn its offer of “good offices,’’ will now support direct United Nations intervention in Indonesia, possibly along the lines proposed by Australia. Dr. E. N. Van Kieffens (Netherlands) yesterday told the Security Council that its efforts to end the conflict had been a dismal failure. Bloodshed had actually increased since the cease fire order was issued because of the Republicans’ actions. He urged the Council to drop the subject and allow the Netherlands and the Indonesians to settle their own differences. Dutch Cancel Statement The Dutch Cabinet has decided to cancel a statement on Indonesia which the Government was to have made on Tuesday, says the correspondent or Reuters at The Hague. Authoritative sources interpret the cancellation of the statement as a postponement of ihe Government’s decision on future action in Indonesia, pending the Security Council’s ruling on the Indonesian situation. . The correspondent says that the British Prime Minister (Mr Attlee) has sent a message to the Republican Prime Minister (Dr. Sjarifuddin). stating that Britain would continue to support attempts to restore peace in Indonesia. ... _ An official of the British Foreign Office said that Holland had asked Britain to permit the British ConsulGeneral in Batavia (Mr J. M. Mitcheson) to prepare and possibly to sub-

mit to the Security Council a personal report of recent occurrences since the cease-fire order in Indonesia.

A message from Batavia says -that the Republican Vice-Premier (Dr. A. K. Gani) claimed to-day that there was now more Indonesian resistance to Dutch aggression in the occupied areas than against the Army’s advances during the police action. The Netherlands’ economic position in Indonesia was worse than before the police action was begun, and was rapidly becoming chaotic. Dr. Gani claimed that the Dutch had jumped from the frying-pan into the fire with their police action, because (1) the Army still occupied only the big towns, and had made few plantations safe for the return of their owners, and (2) the scorched earth policy had deprived the Dutch of the rich resources of the occupied territories. and they were consequently unable to maintain the Army or build up foreign currency reserves for rehabilitation expenditure. These were the reasons why there was talk of the Dutch Army pushing on to Jogjakarta to crush the heart of the Republic and literally exterminate nationalism. Indonesian Reports According to a Republican broadcast from Jogjakarta yesterday, Dutch landings on the west coast of Java were imminent. In Batavia, Republicans said that the Dutch were expected to occupy the West Java province of Bantam as part of their mopping-up operations. Bantam was at one time the headquarters of the British East India Company’s trading activities in the Netherlands East Indies. According to the Republican broadcast, a Dutch vessel at midnight on August 20 anchored off the island of Liwungam and lowered a boatload of soldiers. A quarter of an hour, later the Dutch fired on Labuan, a town on the mainland, “presumably in preparation for an attack.” At the same time two Dutch vessels approached two otfior small islands, clashes between Dutch and Republican troops were reported by the Republicans from east t*nd central Java.

Alleged violations of the cease fire by Dutch forces have now risen to 489 since the cease-fire order was implemented on August 4, including 27 cases of the expansion of Dutch-held terriNetherlands casualties for the three weeks since the cease-fire order in Indonesia now exceed the number I? and wo unded during the open hostilities of the police action period, says a Dutch communique. Casualties since the cease-fire order have reached the total Of 259, compared with 252 in the police action.

U.S. HISTORIAN’S • IMPRESSIONS

(Rec. 10 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 23. After visiting the Indonesian battlefronts, the American historian, Lawrence Griswold, says that in his opinion 90 per cent, of the people prefer Dutch rule to “domination by the fanatical Mohammedans of Jogjakarta’s Javanese and Sumatran politicians.”

“Uprooted and deprived of clothing and food by the Japanese invaders, the people have been further terrified by the Indonesian Army in central Java, an army which was trained by the Japanese to fight returning Occidentals, and learned only too well the Japanese technique of terror gnd rapine,” he says.