It appears from your telegram No. 325 [1] that the United Kingdom
Government was not exactly informed regarding the final breakdown
of the direct talks in Indonesia. The disposal of the Republican
Army was not one of the points of disagreement leading to the
breakdown, and it is unlikely that the Republic would have made a
basic issue of the absorption of the T.N.I. into the Federal Army
as individuals rather than as complete units. The question of a
unified command did indeed give rise to difficulty but the issue
upon which agreement was finally found impossible was whether the
Crown Representative should be empowered to use the armed forces
for internal security purposes against the wishes of the Interim
Federal Government. Hatta's letter of 13th December (K.209 [2])
makes it clear that the Republican attitude on this point was not
inconsistent with recognition of Netherlands sovereignty (see
K.198, K.200, K.201, K.202 [3] and the Republican report on the
direct talks annexed to the Committee's Special Report of 12th
December). [4]