Departmental Dispatch Hag 15 THE HAGUE, 27 December 1949

TRANSFER OF SOVEREIGNTY FROM KINGDOM OF THE NETHERLANDS TO
INDONESIA

I desire to report that I was present at the ceremony in Amsterdam
on 27th December at which Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands
signed the Acts transferring sovereignty to Indonesia. Also
present in addition to representatives of the Diplomatic Corps
were members of the more important Parliamentary political groups
from both Chambers, delegates from Surinam and the Netherlands
Antilles, certain senior Dutch officials and representatives of
the Dutch, Indonesian and foreign press. The audience was a
relatively small one, estimated at 335 by the Dutch official news
service.

2. The actual signing of the documents by the Queen, her Ministers
and the members of the Indonesian Delegation, took place at an
oval table at the end of the Burgerzaal or Civic Hall of the Dam
Palace. The timetable of the ceremony had been arranged to
synchronise as far as possible with that being held in Batavia
where it was essential to conclude the transfer in time for the
Netherlands flag to be lowered before sundown.

The ceremony opened before the entry into the Hall of Her Majesty
Queen Juliana and the Prince of the Netherlands with the reading
of a protocol which certified that the Netherlands Parliament and
the constitutional authorities of the sixteen component parts of
the new United Republic of Indonesia had all ratified the
agreements reached at the recent Round Table Conference, that an
Indonesian Cabinet had been properly constituted under an elected
President, and that the Indonesian Delegation present to receive
sovereignty from the Netherlands had been legally authorised. This
protocol (a translation of which is attached as Annexure 'A' [1])
was signed first by Dr. Willem Drees as Prime Minister of the
Netherlands and Dr. Mohammed Hatta as Prime Minister of Indonesia,
and subsequently by the six Indonesian delegates, the fourteen
members of the Dutch Cabinet and the two representatives of
Surinam and the Netherlands Antilles.

4. The Queen and the Prince then made their solemn entry, the
former escorted by the Prime Minister and the Minister for
Overseas Territories and the latter by the Presidents of the two
Chambers of the States-General. The documents of transfer were
offered in a hand-tooled red leather book 24" x 16". At the
request of the Prime Minister, the Secretary of the Cabinet opened
the volume and read the Deed of Confirmation in which Queen
Juliana gave her assent to the new Order of Law (Nieuwe
Rechtsorde) which had been ratified by the Netherlands Parliament
and accepted by the territories acceding to the new Indonesian
Republic. (A translation of this Deed is attached as Annexure
'B'.) After the Queen's signature had been affixed at 10.19 a.m.

local time (0919 hours G.M.T.), Dr. Drees and Van Maarseveen
signed also.

5. The Secretary of the Cabinet next read out the Act of Transfer
of sovereignty (a translation of which is attached as Annexure
'C') by which it was confirmed that the Charter of Transfer had
become law, that the Netherlands-Indonesian Union with the Queen
as its Head had been brought into effect, and that all the
provisions formulated as a result of the Round Table Conference
had come into force. After the signature of this document by the
Queen, Dr. Drees and Mr. van Maarseveen, Dr Drees officially
declared the Union to be established. As reported in my telegram
No. 232 [2] the Queen signed this document at 10.22 a.m. local
time (0922 hours G.M.T.). At this point Dr. Hatta rose and made a
brief statement in Dutch accepting the transfer. His remarks were
brief and of a conventional nature. He said in substance that it
was a great honour to accept sovereignty on behalf of the new
State and that he cherished the hope that relations between the
Netherlands and Indonesia would develop in a direction leading to
the prosperity and happiness of the Netherlands and Indonesian
peoples. He then signed, followed by the members of his
delegation, the Act of Transfer as well the Charter of Transfer,
the Netherlands-Indonesian Union Statute and the Transfer
Agreement. When the last signature had been affixed the
Netherlands Prime Minister announced that the Queen would address
the Assembly. A translation of the Queen's speech is attached as
Annexure 'D'.

The ceremony was terminated with the playing on the palace
carillon of the Indonesian national anthem, Indonesia Raya, and
the Netherlands anthem, the Wilhelmus.

7. Despite its importance, the ceremony drew little public
interest. Although the weather was relatively fine, the crowds
outside the Dam Palace were small and there was little evidence in
Amsterdam or, apparently, throughout the country of any notable
reaction to the accomplishment of the final step in the granting
of independence to Indonesia. On my return to The Hague, I noticed
that several houses, possibly occupied by members of such
organisations as the 'Committee for the Unity of the Realm', were
flying flags at-half mast, but this gesture was only sporadically
imitated.

8. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Indonesian delegation,
the Dutch Cabinet and a few special guests had informal talks with
the Queen and each other and later lunched with the Queen and
Prince Bernhard. Before the luncheon took place Dr. Hatta laid a
wreath on the Dutch National War Memorial in the Dam Square and
paid a call on the Burgomaster of Amsterdam, Mr. A. J. d'Ailly.