DUTCH RELATIONS WITH INDONESIA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27387, 28 June 1954, Page 9

DUTCH RELATIONS WITH INDONESIA

High Commissioner’s

Statement (Rec. 8 p.m.) JAKARTA. June 26. Indonesian Foreign Ministry officials were meeting here today to discuss a press statement by the Netherlands High Commissioner (Count Bylandt), who had yesterday spoken of international Communism as “a greater danger than colonialism.” Usually reliable Indonesian sources said the Foreign Ministry officials were considering action, including the possibility of declaring the High Commissioner persona non grata. An Indonesian official source said the statement he gave the local news agencies Aneta and Antara, yesterday; on the relationship between the Netherlands and Indonesia on the eve of discussions in The Hague on the abrogation of the union between both countries, could give sufficient reason for declaring the High Commissioner persona non grata. Count Bylandt in his press interview, discussing the word “colonial,” which he said appears to be a magic word to confuse people, had warned against “another kind of colonialism under present conditions much more dangerous for Indonesia, namely Communist Imperialism.”

He said international communism was well aware that the crippling of Foreign enterprises in Indonesia, which yield half the total tax revenues, would be the shortest way to Indonesia’s ruin. Count Bylandt had described the Dutch-Indonesian dispute regarding western New Guinea which is claimed by Indonesia and held by the Dutch, “of an international character.” He said: “The territory is being called an Indonesian national claim” and added: “But tor us it is also a national issue.” Criticising his interview, a Ministry of Information spokesman said: “Count Bylandt’s statement that the western New Guinea question constitutes a national issue for the Netherlands has made clear to the Indonesian people that the Netherlands has made colonialism its national claim.” The interview had given a “feeling of discord,” the Information Ministry’s statement said. Count Bylandt went so far as “to advise the Indonesian people of the existence of a danger far greater than colonialism—Communist Imperialism This is the old song we have heard over and over again,” the statement said.