Cablegram 739 SINGAPORE, 24 December 1948, 7.13 p.m.
IMMEDIATE SECRET
My telegram 733. [1]
Apparently four small transmitters are still operating from Indonesia. Broadcasts have been picked up from Madioen and Pakan Baroe and from one source purporting to be Bukit Tinggi itself These all claim that guerilla resistance is taking on shape and substance and instance the recapture of Blitar.
2. According to British Military intelligence the Dutch have put three Battalions into Bogor area and six more at Surakarta.
According to the Indonesians these are districts into which, by a prearranged plan, two Siliwangi divisions of T.N.I. have, for the last three weeks, been infiltrating in small groups to be ready to stay behind for resistance to present police action, which seems to be inevitable. The Dutch are already finding difficulty in Bogor area. This may prove to be the case also in Bandoeng region.
We are informed that it may take some weeks to organise this resistance but that Indonesians expect it can remain effective for two months.
3. According to [2] who is now in Singapore, Indonesian plan of action is three fold (A) to keep up resistance so that the Dutch cannot present the world with a fait accompli and to maintain Goot [3] in being.
Sjaffrodin, Minister of Economic Affairs, is in Sumatra and is trying to form new cabinet there which will ask for De jute recognition.
(B) To keep the question alive at the United Nations, Minister of Finance has gone to Paris for this purpose.
(C) To seek as much practical assistance as possible from India and Pakistan which have refused K.L.M. transit rights. India has also promised equipment and all aid short of war.
Will report daily for the time being any information from the republican broadcasts, mentioned above. Although Malayan leaders here have made no public statement on the situation Malayan Press is now demanding Economic [4] (sanctions) against the Dutch.
_
1 Dispatched on 23 December, it reported that Oetoyo had left for India on the previous day and that Massey would consult with a Republican representative from Djokjakarta and report the result.
2 A sign here indicates ‘mutilated groups’.
3 This should presumably read ‘Govt’.
4 A sign here indicates ‘mutilated groups’.
_
[AA:1838, 854/10/4/3, ii]