Cablegram UN72 NEW YORK, 29 January 1949, 5.35 p.m.
SECRET
INDONESIA
Our 69. [1]
Van Royen’s twenty two page speech [2] read before voting on resolution commenced charged that resolution amounted to imposition of United Nations ‘Guardianship’ over Netherlands. He warned that no country would ‘concede’ to the ‘sacrifices’ demanded and told council bluntly it would be responsible for creating ‘an almost unbridgeable gap’ in entire Indonesian situation.
2. He said that returning Jogjakarta to Republic might result in more disorder, that power was given to the Commission to interfere in Netherlands domestic affairs and that council was taking on itself right to decide fate of Indonesia in spite of Netherlands sovereignty.
3. The Hague, he emphatically declared, would accept resolution [3] only as far as it was compatible with its responsibility for maintaining law and order in Indonesia. He attacked almost every provision of resolution as leading to just the opposite lawlessness and disorder.
4. Summarizing attitude Van Royen said ‘we must fundamentally object to paragraph 2, the final paragraph of part three, the last sentence of paragraph 4(a) and against paragraph 4(f), because these sections require the Netherlands to surrender certain vital rights in Indonesia, during the interim period. We must appeal to the Council not to ask from us any such sacrifice, which it has never before asked from any member of the United Nations, which it is not entitled to ask under the charter, and which no member of the United Nations could concede. This paragraph in fact would put the Netherlands under guardianship of the United Nations. The Government and the people of the Netherlands have not merited this treatment. The Dutch have not guided the development of Indonesia for 350 years to surrender its responsibility in the last minute before final consummation of its development-the achievement of statehood for Indonesia.
In the rest of the resolution there are many things which are difficult for us to accept, and many which we should like to see changed. But we realize that each party must make sacrifices and we shall therefore formulate no objections to the rest of the Resolution. My Government will carry out this resolution if it is adopted by Security Council to the extent to which it is compatible with the responsibility of the Netherlands for the maintenance of real freedom and order in Indonesia, a responsibility which at this moment no one else can take over from us.’
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1 Document 170.
2 For the text of Van Roijen’s speech see United Nations, Security Council Records, Forth Year, No. 9, 406th Meeting, pp.6-19.
3 Document 168.
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[AA : A1838, 403/3/1/1, xxi]