INDONESIANS MAY ACCEPT MEDIATION BY UNITED STATES

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 August 1947, Page 7

INDONESIANS MAY ACCEPT MEDIATION BY UNITED STATES

NEW YORK, August 13

At the request of the United States the Indonesian Republic may drop its demand for immediate United Nations arbitration in its dispute with the Netherlands.

The United States is reported to have persuaded Sutan Sjahrir, the Indonesian envoy to the United Nations, that the Security Council would never approve compulsory arbitration and that Indonesia would serve its interests best by accepting United States mediation with the prospect of arbitration at a later stage if mediation fails.

It is understood that American mediation would be more acceptable to the Indonesians than the Dutch proposal for a round-table conference of all the Governments and ethnic groups in the Netherlands East Indies.

“The Netherlands Government statement' from The Hague saying that the ‘police action’ in Indonesia had ended was diametrically opposed to the actual conditions in the country,” said an Indonesian Republican Government spokesman in Jogjakarta.

The spokesman said that the Dutch statement that the Netherlands intended to adhere to the Cheribon Agreement, and promising the right of self-determination was ridiculous.

Messages from Jogjakarta say that in spite of the visit of the United States Consul (Mr Walter Foote), the Republican Government has decided not to change its decision to accept American good offices, and to ask America to use its influence with the Netherlands and the Security Council to send an international arbitration commission to Indonesia. The Republican army claims to have recorded 252 Dutch violations of the cease fire in Indonesia between August 5 and August 11. The Netherlands Indies Eurasian Society today sent a message from Batavia to the Security Council, appealing to the council to consider “the actual situation in the territories at present ruled by the Republic, and the mentality and activities of the terrorists, who are robbing and murdering Republicans before reaching any decision on Indonesia.”