Foreign News: Chip on the Shoulder

The optimism heard at The Hague found only a faint echo some 8,000 miles away at Jogjakarta, the makeshift capital of the Indonesian Republic. As news of the agreement crackled in over the shortwave radio last week, there was increasing discontent among the nationalists. A leader of the Labor Party summed up their complaints: “Too many concessions to the Dutch.”

Some Indonesian editorial snipers blamed the U.S. for everything. Cried the newspaper Nasional: “We demand an integral and undivided independence. But what do we see today? [New Guinea] was pawned for one year . . . America is going to defend itself against Communism, and Indonesia is on its way to be made the place for America’s self-defense.”

The agreement faced tough sledding in the Indonesian congress, which had still to ratify it. But, as a spokesman for Masjumi, Indonesia’s largest political party, put it: “We are not very contented. Yet we will make the best of it.”

The only people in Indonesia who were really contented were the soldiers of the Dutch army, who had been conscripted for unpopular service in a steaming, tropical land. Last week the sides of Dutch army trucks, filled with tall blond soldiers, bore chalked signs like: Tabeh, we gaan de rommel verlaten (Goodbye, we’re pulling out of this mess) and Doe het self maar verder. Gaan naar moeder (Do it yourself. We’re going home to mother).