Cablegram K226 BATAVIA, 24 December 1948, 9.48 p.m.
IMMEDIATE RESTRICTED
Doctor Supomo, a member of the Republican Delegation, requests the following message be passed to Usman.
‘I am the only Republican High Official left undetained in Batavia to maintain contact with Committee of Good Offices and Consular Corps- particularly with the Australian and Indian Consul-Generals.
Republican resistance against the Dutch aggression is nowhere broken. The Dutch official communiques concede heavy fighting against Siliwangi troops in Serayu Valley in Kudus area and in Malang area. In Djokjakarta fighting continues. TNI troops have dispersed to the mountains and forests to prepare for a guerilla struggle. The Rural population and peoples in the Dutch-occupied towns are far from undisturbed as the Dutch propaganda would suggest, but they keep silent with their fighting spirit and nationalism unbroken. In Federal Territories there are strong sympathies with the Republic. In addition [to] the resignation of Adil [and] Anuk [A] gung, Kusna Puradiredja and others have withdrawn from Bandoeng Federal Conference. Madura Parliament disapproves of the Dutch military action. Even Wal[i] Negar[a] of South Sumatra, Abdu[l] [Mali]k cannot approve of the action without reservations. In South Borneo, martial law has been proclaimed because internal peace is endangered. [1]
It is reported that Doctor Sukiman is in East Java to organize the resistance and that the Sultan of Djokjakarta left the capital before the Dutch attack but correctness of this news cannot yet be checked.
President Soekarno and other members of the Republican Government, have been taken [from] Djokjakarta to an unknown place of detention. Our demand to the Security Council to release Soekarno and others is most essential for the eventual resumption of negotiations after a cease-fire order and a retirement of the Dutch troops. In my opinion the Indonesian question can now only be settled with a third party intermediary with powers of arbitration. Three safeguards are essential for our national cause:
(a) the stipulation of a fixed date for the formation of an independent United States of Indonesia;
(b) international control during the interim period. The Indonesian question should remain on the agenda of the Security Council until transfer of Sovereignty by the Dutch;
(c) the Dutch troops not to be used during the interim period without the consent of the interim Government. The second Military action proves that the Dutch authorities will readily resort to military force.
Please approach the Australian Government requesting support of our cause along these lines and pass my message to Sumitro at Washington.’
2.The Republican papers Berita Indonesia, Merdeka were banned yesterday for two days and one day respectively because of the manner in which ‘the papers have edited the news’.
3. There are reports that estate guards in West Java are deserting with all their ammunition, arms, and families.
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1 The matter in square brackets in the preceding sentences has been corrected from a copy on file AA : 4357/2, 48/254, vi.
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[AA:A1838, 403/2/3/2, iii]