UNION WITH DUTCH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26792, 8 June 1948, Page 6

UNION WITH DUTCH

INDONESIA’S FUTURE CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY AWAITED MEASURE BEFORE ELECTORS By Air Mail From Graham Jenkins, A.A.P.-Reuter Correspondent BATAVIA, May 14. Flans, promises, and provisional developments for the new Netherlands relationship with Indonesia, scheduled to mature next year, will depend for constitutional endorsement on the Dutch elector when he goes to the polls next month. A Bill amending the Netherlands Kingdom Constitution to provide for the projected Netherlands-Indonesian Union under the Dutch Crown is now before the Dutch Parliament. Latest reports here say there is some opposition to its proposals, but the Beel Catholic-Labour Coalition Ministry is believed by local observers to have the necessary support to make the passing of the Bill little more than a formal affair.

Parliament must then be dissolved and a general election held according to the Constitution. Afterwards, the newly-elected Parliament must ratify the Bill with a two-thirds majority. There is less certainty in the minds of Dutchmen in some places in this city about the ratification. Still, they expect the Dutch elector to approve the Bill by returning the Beel Government, even if it is more for reasons of domestic politics than because the elector sees the Indonesian issue from the same perspective as those 10,000 miles farther east. Political Stability

~ Holland, they think, under che Beel Government has obtained a measure of social and political stability that has been favourably reflected in the speed of its post-war economic recovery. It is unlikely, they say, in view of this and the existing European situation, that the present Government’s policy will be seriously challenged. Here, in both Dutch authoritative circles and among many responsible Indonesians, the projected union is regarded as the keystone of the practical solution that appears slowly to be evolving from the political dispute. Recent discussions in the negotiations with the Republicans, according to some observers, indicate that slow evolution of a workable settlement is unlikely to take final shape until at least the groundwork of the political reconstruction has been constitutionally laid

Official statements and developments so far have shown that the Beel Government is making no secret of the fact that it is committed in the Linggadjati Agreement, signed with the Republicans, to undertake this work. According to reliable Dutch source? here, there will be no qoestiori of the sovereign status of the United States of Indonesia being compromised when it is formed next year. Both the reconst-ucted Netherlands Kingdom and the USI will be separate nations, each members of the United Kingdoms, and both owing allegiance to a common Dutch Crown. Parity in Status

Like Benelux and the British Commonwealth, co-operation on matters of common interest, through consultation on the basis of parity in status, is to be the future relationship. The union and an exchange of High Commissioners will be the machinery for implementing co-operation. Sources here emphasise that the final foil., ana power oi f e un n are not finally determined nor will they be until there has been thorough consultation with several groups of Indonesians interested. It will pronably comprise the responsible Ministers of the respective Netherlands and U.S.I. (Governments concerned with the matters of common interest on which there is to be consultation.

Decisions of the council will automatically become law in the two sovereign countries or will require ratification by the respective Governments. Possibly the latter course will be adopted, some observers, think. Recent reports show that these union proposals have been the subject of criticism both in Holland and here in Indonesia. Some Netherlanders are inclined to take the view that such a union would merely wreck the Kingdom, while some Republican Indonesians consider the union machinery in its practical operations would be delivering Indonesia in chains to the Dutch. Proposals for “ Super-State ”

Reports say that the more conservative Dutch politicians are discussing proposals for what has been called a “ super-State ” organisation of the union. They are said to favour the two sovereign nations surrendering some of their specific powers, such as defence, oversea trade, foreign relations, foreign exchange, etc., to a union body that would legislate for both countries On the other hand some Indonesians want to see the union more loosely organised than has been proposed Apparently afraid of perhaps preponderant Dutch influence, they have suggested something like the British Commonwealth structure. Others see Indonesia’s future interests are almost exclusively associated with Asian develoment and are not enthusiastic about east-west co-opera-tion in any new forms. The views in some respects cover the same ground as the historic development of the British Commonwealth, although in a much briefer period, repeating the arguments of the unionists on the one side and the Irish on the other. Western European Stability Nations interested in western European stability and everything it stands for to-day cannot, they say, be disinterested in Holland’s welfare. Holland’s economic position and stability is playing an important part in western Eurone and it may be dependent to a degree, at least, on Indonesian resource.-, obtained through the new relationship. Besides, they say, there are countries anxious to see that Indonesia’s mineral oil resources stay in safe hands. That is why they think the solution on the new Netherlands-Indonesian relationship must be quick, must be workable, and must be a lasting compromise. And Dutchmen in some authoritative places here agree the emphasis must be on co-operation and on a workable union machinery, rather than on building some new superstructure, in deciding the new relanonship. Their proposals, they think, fit the times for in a world organising intensely for self-preservation some form of permanent consultative body has been found necessary, even as recently as in the Brussels Treaty arrangements