Note BATAVIA, 17 May 1949
During a call upon De Ranitz yesterday afternoon, he raised the question of the Relief Supplies and I gathered that he felt that the local administration might not be too pleased about handing over the stores direct to the Republican Government. He asked me how did I expect that the Republic would be able to distribute the stores outside the Residency of Djocjakarta and I replied presumably through its own administration where this was still recognized under the Van Royen-Rum Agreement [1], and in other areas with the kind assistance of the Government of Indonesia. He said he would take the point up with the authorities.
He then queried why the existing arrangement for distribution, through the Red Cross and under the supervision of Lt. Col Sullivan, was no longer satisfactory. I replied that the supplies had originally been consigned to the Republican Government for distribution in its territories and that the present arrangement was merely a measure to overcome the difficulty created by the overthrow of the Republic. Now that the Republic was to be restored, there was no longer any reason not to hand over to it its supplies. De Ranitz again said he would refer the matter to the authorities and promised me an early reply.
With regard to the textiles, he said he would suggest that the ban be lifted when the ‘cease-fire’ was proclaimed. However he anticipated that the Army would still raise difficulties. He asked that these comments be taken as informal.
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1 See Documents 376 and 385.
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[AA : A4357/2, 352/2, i]