CONFERENCE AT THE HAGUE TO DECIDE INDONESIA’S FUTURE
LONDON, August 22.—The Dutch Prime Minister CDr Willem Drees) will open a round-table conference on Indonesia at The Hague tomorrow. The Dutch Government has convened the conference after four years of dispute, fighting, and negotiation, “to reach agreement on ways and means of transferring real, complete, and unconditional sovereignty to the Untied Republic of Indonesia in accordance with the principles of the Renville agreement signed by the Dutch and the Indonesian Republic on January 17, 1948.” The conference consists of a Dutch delegation of 24, headed by the Minister of Overseas Territories (Mr. J. H. van Maarseveen); a Republican delegation of 45, led by the Indonesian Prime Minister (Dr Mohammed Hatta); a Federalist delegation of 65 headed by Sultan Hamid II of Pontianak; and the United Nations Commission for Indonesia, comprising MiMerle Cochran (United States), Mr T. K. Critchley (Australia), and Mr Raymond Herremans (Belgium). Reuter’s correspondent at The Hague says that all delegations are agreed on the need for early discussions on the withdrawal of the Dutch troops and recognition of the United Republican Army to maintain law and order. Dutch New Guinea, which is the only area in the Indonesian Archipelago still under full Dutch is a thorny problem. Dr Hatta said on August 21: “The Dutch have one idea. -We have a very different one. We 'consider New Guinea part of the State of Indonesia, but the Dutch do not include it in that area, and wish to retain it.” • Reuter says that the Dutch public seem more resigned to the loss of Indonesia than the politicians. Many ordinary people blame the Netherlands Government, or the United Nations, or even Britain, for the situation, but they admit that there is nothing to be done about it. There is a strong feeling that the conference is of little use as the Government has “sold out” already.
' Dutch newspapers are maintaining a sharp division of opinion, but all are making special arrangements for full coverage of the conference.
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Greymouth Evening Star, 23 August 1949, Page 6
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337CONFERENCE AT THE HAGUE TO DECIDE INDONESIA’S FUTURE Greymouth Evening Star, 23 August 1949, Page 6
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