U.S. Determined To Avoid Interference In Indonesia

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28551, 2 April 1958, Page 13

U.S. Determined To Avoid Interference In Indonesia

(Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 1. Washington officials today reaffirmed that the United States was determined to avoid interference in Indonesia’s internal affairs. In particular, they said, the United States had no plan to propose mediation in the Suma tran rebellion, either by itself or any other country. They were commenting on a front-page report in the “New York Times” yesterday that Washington officials "make no secret of their inclination toward the rebels’ anti-Communlst aims and their distrust of President Soekarno’s liaison with the Communists.” The report said the Soviet union had supplied “10 ships, with small arms and ammunition” and a large number of utility vehicles to the Indonesian Central Government. It also said there had been "talk in official circles” in Washington that the United States would welcome a move by Prince Wan Waithayakon, Thailand’s Foreign Minister, or U Nu, the Burmese Premier, to act as mediator between the Indonesian Government and the rebels Indonesian officials said flatly, and United States officials agreed, that no arms or ammunition had been aboard the 10 ships supplied to Indonesia by the Soviet Union. An Indonesian Embassy spokesman said the Soviet vessels were small two-deckers for interisland traffic. They would not be used for transporting troops. The tonnage of all ten combined was 23,000 tons, and only four had so far arrived in Indonesia to be handed over empty to the Indonesian Govern-

ment and Indonesian crews. United States officials said they knew of no deliveries of Soviet arms to Indonesia at all. While it was true that Indonesia had purchased several hundred Army utility vehicles from the Soviet Union, many of these had been delivered before the rebellion broke out and distributed to Indonesian Army units in what had now become rebel areas as well as to units in loyalist regions. Thus the utility chicles were being used on both sides in the revolt, these officials said. Neither Indonesian nor United States officials here knew of any basis for speculation that mediation might be in the offing—by Prince Wan, U. Nu or anybody else. Indonesian officials said the Jakarta government did not want outside mediation, since the revolt was a purely internal affair. United States officials said that they, too, regarded the revolt as a domestic Indonesian matter. State Department officials said last week that the United States was postponing consideration of Indonesia’s long-standing request for United States arms until the Indonesian situation calmed down. This decision was seen in diplomatic quarters as evidence of the “hands off” policy adopted by official Washington, which has also been at pains to deny, emphatically, published reports that the United States was engaged directly or otherwise in supplying arms to the rebels. State Department officials have consistently refused in recent weeks to voice support for, or criticism of, either side in the Indonesian revolt.