We learnt from tonight's A.B.C. [1] news that no official approach
had yet been made to you concerning the present acute situation in
Indonesia.

No doubt you are aware that our Committee [2] is not an official
organ of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia, but conducts
its work voluntarily. Nevertheless, we trust that, having
endeavoured to represent the cause of Indonesian Independence in
Australia for the past twenty-two months, we may presume to speak
for our Republic in this hour of crisis. And it seems clear to our
Committee that an official instruction concerning such an approach
from the Government of the Republic has failed to reach its
officer, Dr Oesman Sastroamidjojo, now in Australia.

We therefore take it upon ourselves so to approach you.

On behalf of the Indonesian people we appeal on the grounds of
humanity and justice to you as the head of the Government of our
nearest southern neighbour, to use your good influences to stop
the war which has now broken out in our country.

We are aware that Dutch officials deny that the events of today
and yesterday in Indonesia constitute warfare, but are 'policing
actions' to prevent intervention by elements sabotaging agreement
between Indonesians and Dutch. We seem to remember that the
Japanese likewise denied any act of war in China for many long
years, although thousands of Chinese were killed and injured and
their cities fell. It seems that the Indonesian is to be another
undeclared war.

But we grow through experience. Through her own agony in the
Middle East, in Malaya and New Guinea, Australia has learned the
lesson of undeclared wars, and will not be likely to be blinded
again.

Tonight's Djokjakarta Radio news (Djokjakarta is the republican
capital) informs us that 100,000 Dutch combined land, sea and air
forces launched an attack on military and non-military objectives
throughout Java and Sumatra at midnight of July 20th21st, and that
heavy fighting is now going on in all demarcation areas. Can such
large-scale attacks be glossed over as 'policing actions', or are
we right in believing with our Prime Minister that they are war as
total as the Dutch military leadership can make it?
Another news item discloses that Dr A.K. Gani, Republican Vice-
Premier, in a last-minute effort to find a peaceful solution to
the situation, yesterday presented the Dutch Commission-General in
Djakarta (Batavia) with three alternative proposals. Firstly, he
suggested, that the two parties should negotiate again in an
endeavour to solve their problems; secondly, if that should fail,
they should both seek the arbitration of a third neutral party;

and if that also should fail to settle their differences, both
parties should apply to the International Court of justice.

Today, Dr Gani was arrested-arrested with Dr Tamzil, Vice-Minister
for Foreign Affairs, and Mr Soewirjo, Republican Mayor of Djakarta
and two hundred other Republican officials of that city, whose
offices were closed and activities ended by the Dutch forces. Was
Dr Gani 'taken into protective arrest' (as our Brisbane paper has
it) and therefore paraded down the streets, or was he being made
an example of to other determined nationalists?
Such acts show no desire on the part of the Dutch to co-operate or
reach real compromise over matters Indonesian. They only expose
the Dutch will to remove the leadership of the Republic, the
better and quicker to destroy it. It is an old tactic, well known
to us who for long years were political exiles in Tanah Merah. [3]

The enclosed bulletin [4], which it had been our purpose to
deliver to you in Brisbane before we had thought of this present
letter, tells the story of the degree of agreement reached in the
Indonesian-Dutch dispute. We take it that this is not the first
evidence you have received as to the veracity of the reports that
the Republic had rejected all the Dutch proposals.

We believe that the Republican stand is a just and a fair one, and
the concessions made exhibit a very sincere desire to reach a
workable agreement quickly with the Dutch authorities. We believe
that any accurate report of the happenings we record will so
appear to any just person.

Yet it is over this situation that the Dutch authorities have seen
fit to gain by force of arms a complete subjection to their own
point of view. We believe that recent statements of presumably
responsible Dutch leaders-such as Drs Beel and Jonkman, Ministers
of the Dutch Crown-show a complete disregard for the desires and
aspirations of the Indonesian people, and certainly constitute a
violation of the entire spirit of the Linggardjati Agreement, in
which recognition of the de facto authority of the Government of
the Republic was granted by the Netherlands.

We believe, therefore, that only international intervention can
save our country and our people. Australia has put her hand to the
United Nations' Charter designed to protect the elementary human
rights of all mankind and for the prevention of outbreaks just
such as this. We look to you accordingly as one of the guardians
of democracy, and we plead with you to act quickly and as best you
are able, before it is once more too late, and the world is
involved all over again in hideous warfare.

President Soekarno, in his radio speech this evening, specifically
asked all countries sympathetic to Indonesia's struggle, who are
members of that Organisation, to take up the Indonesian-Dutch
question immediately with the United Nations Organisation, and
pleaded for all help and assistance that democratic peoples could
give in bringing a speedy end to the war that is now proceeding in
Indonesia. [5] While we can still greet you as a free people-

MERDEKA!