Security Council

On July 29, 1948, the Security Council devoted two sessions to a further consideration of the Indonesian question. The occasion for the discussion was the receipt from the Committee of Good Offices of a previously requested report on restrictions of trade in Indonesia and the reason for the delay in the implementation of Article 6 of the Renville Truce Agreement. The committee reported that, six months after the Truce Agreement, Republican controlled areas of Java and Sumatra suffered from “grave deficiencies†of transportation equipment and supplies which acted to cause local dislocations and shortages of all categories of materials needed for rehabilitation reconstruction. Factors creating these shortages were listed by the committee as 1) the division of Indonesia into two separate administrative compartments; 2) the damage of World War II followed by political dispute, military conflict and scorched earth policies; 3) the inadequate implementation of Article 6 of the Truce Agreement arising, primarily, from the “regulations governing domestic and international trade promulgated by Netherlands Indies civil and military authorities between January 1947 and the signing of the Truce Agreement and which have been continued in effect to date.†3 After summarizing Dutch and Indonesian positions on these regulations, the committee, after declining to allocate responsibility as between the two parties, concluded that it was “indisputable†that pending an agreement restoring economic and political unity to Indonesia the economic plight of Republican controlled areas could not be substantially ameliorated “until a way is found to relax existing regulations,†and that this development would require a basic improvement in the attitude of the parties.