DUTCH SUGGEST INTERIM GOVERNMENT FOR INDONESIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 August 1947, Page 8

DUTCH SUGGEST INTERIM GOVERNMENT FOR INDONESIA

THE HAGUE, August 12.

■ The Netherlands Government has officially announced/ that it has offered to form, immediately an interim Government. for. Indonesia, -in which .representatives-of : the. various states’would .co-operate with the Govenor-General. - ■A statement said the-step had-been taken to - preclude any doubt, about, the Netherlands Government’s willingness to create a sovereign, democratic, federal state of Indonesia. Conference To Be Called

The Government would call, as spon as possible, a round-table conference to discuss the new political structure in .Indonesia,, it was added. fhe Government’s aims were the same as those of the Cheribpn Agreement. It. was willing to cut down its troops as soon as a police force could guarantee, law and order. The Dutch Government welcomed the American offer;of help towards a solution, but would not accept arbitration. Reuters correspondent comments that the question of a joint DutchIndonesian police force was the last point of difference remaining between the Dutch and the Indonesians when the ’ Netherlands Government began its “police action” on July 20. Republican Attacks About 350 Republicans attacked a Netherlands patrol' south-west of Dutch-held Anibarawa, in Central Java, ':says a Dutch communique. It reports. other infringements of the cease-fire order in East Java, and in South and Central Sumatra. Three Dutch soldiers have been killed and four wounded in the last 24 hours.

In ,a Republican attack near Ambarawa, rifles, machine-guns and grenades were used. The attack was repulsed with some Dutch casualties.