Evening star., 1948-12-19
Dutch Open New Police Action
Aqoinst Indonesio Terrorists ;
Invasion Begun, Republic Says
Sturt Of HostiIities
Follows Creation of
Interim Government
BY the Associated Press

THE HAGUE, The Neither
lands, Dec. 18.-The Netherlands
government announced today
that it had started new police
action" in IndoneSia after pro-
claiming a new stop-gap govern
ment for the East Indies.
A spokesman for the Foreign Of
flee summarized an official Dutch
communique by saying:
The Netherlands government felt
itself regretfully obliged to under
take police action against terrorist
and undisciplined elements in the
Republic who render any construc-
tive policy impossible"
The official announcement of the
long awaited opening of ho~ilities
against terrorist elements" was
made at 4:50 pm. (EST. 1t was
understood that fighting had already
been in progress several hours. The
action affects parts of Central Java
and Sumatra. which contain about
one-third of Indonesia's 10000, 900
people.
Dutch sources estimate the
Republican Army at about
100000 It does not have modern
equipment, however Dutch and
native troops in the Dutch
forces are estimated at about
125.000.
"a dispatch from Batavia,
Java. said censorship had been
clamped on all outgoing press
cables from Indonesia today. A
government announcement said:
I'm connection with the mea-
sures taken today, censorship has
been instituted on all press
cables. Orders have been issued
to have this preventive control
exercised as smoothly as possible.
Any delay will be avoided as
much as possible"
Interim Regime Created.
Earlier the Dutch said they had
created new interim regime
which would take over all of Indo-
neSia except the one-third con-
trolled by the Indonesian Republic
The Netherlands government view
is that the re.ublic, in its areas of
Java and Sumatra, cannot maintain
order.
A Dutch announcement said the
new stopgap government will seek
to augment the plan for a federal
regime which would be linked later
on to the Netherlands crown. The
1ndonesian Republic has refused to-
agree to the details of the proposed
new federal system of states. Nego-
tiations between the two parties,
sponsored by the United Nations,
were broken off by the Dutch week
ago.
The Foreign Office spokesman said
the decision to take police action
resulted after the breakdown in
informal conversations on the Indo-
nesian Republic on account of the
latter's failure to comply with truce
obligations and reply to the last
Dutch note asking for a binding
declaration on four essential
points"
The communicate said there has
been no reply from the Republic
within a fixed period of time. while
it has been proved that the Repub-
lican government put itself at this
critical stage. in a position of its
being impossible to give definite
answer because the president of
the republic, DR.. Soekarno, had an
nounced it was his plan to leave
Jogjakarta with six of his ministers
for India. which meanwhile, has
happened"
Premier Ill for 2 Weeks.
"In the second place the COM
munique added, "Dr. Mohammed
Hatta, the Republican premier, has
reported himself i'll for a duration
of two weeks. Under these circum-
stances, every possibility to obtain,
on short term, improvement of the
untenable situation, had thus
failed"
The Foreign Office spokesman
said the aim of the Netherlands
government to establish an Indo-
nesian federation as an equal part
(See lNDONESIA, Page A-4D