United States' Proposals For Settlement Of The Indonesian Question Not Liked By Dutch

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 January 1949, Page 5

United States' Proposals For Settlement Of The Indonesian Question Not Liked By Dutch

NEV, YORK, Jan. 15 (Rec. 6 pm).—The United States has circulated among Security Council members a working paper embodying proposals for settlement of the Indonesian question it is learned at Lake Success.

Tlie proposals contain a timetable along the lines proposed by the Dutch and provide for the United Nations supervision of a progressive withdrawal of Dutch troops from Indonesian territory. The proposals eall for the following time-table:

(1) That an agreement for the establishment of a United States of Indonesia be reached by March 1. I (2) The completion by September 1 of elections for a constituent Assembly. (3) Completion of the transfer of -sovereignty by April 1, 1950. The United States is awaiting reaction from Britain, the Netherlands and Indonesia before putting the pro--posals in the form of a resolution to the Security Council. The Dutch delegate, Mr. J. van Royen, however, announced in advance to the Council that the Netherlands would “not acquiesce” in any Nations order to evacuate its troops, and that any United Nations attempt to impose a timetable on Holland would be unacceptable. Mr. van Royen sharply attacked United States and Russian and other critics of Dutch policy in Indonesia. Referring to the United States proposals, Mr. van Royen said: “My Government considers that such action on the part of the Council would, on the one hand, constitute a still further unacceptable interference in our domestic affairs, and on the other hand, would be superfluous in view of our own plans, which are now rapidly taking shape. If the Dutch were to withdraw their armed forces all the Indonesian groups that have co-oper-ated with the Dutch would fall a prey to reprisals and retaliatory measures.” Mr. John Hood (Australia), said: “unimpeachable" reports reaching the Australian Government showed that the Dutch were inflicting large casualties on civilian populations of Indonesia in which the Republic did not figure at all. Mr. Hood said that in Mr. van Royen’s constitutional programme for Indonesia there was no trace of a Republic of Indonesia The Dutch apparently wished the Security Council to proceed as if the Republic had never existed. He declared the Security Council must firstly release the Indonesian leaders and restore their full official and political freeI dom; secondly, order the withdrawal

of the Dutch occupying forces from Republican areas. This withdrawal should be both early and effective. Sir Alexander Cadogan (Britain), criticised the Dutch for refusing to comply with the United Nations cease fire order, but he cautioned that it would be unwise or worse to demand complete reversal of the situation with which the United Nations was confronted. Sir Alexander suggested that if the Indonesian leaders were immediately released and the Dutch gave a firm guarantee that their programme would be carried out under conditions of full freedom, the tangled problem might be unravelled. The Council adjourned without a decision until Monday. An official Dutch spokesman in The Hague said the reported American scheme for political reconstruction in Indonesia to be placed before the Security Council was impracticable in all its main points. The spokesman added that to hand the whole area over again to the Repulicans, as the Americans are reported to have suggested, would make it impossible to put Into operation the complicated administrative machinery necessary to prepare for free democratic elections which in a country like Indonesia were not as easy to organise as in western countries.