By this time the Dutch had acquired a number of towns in Java and Sumatra and continued to occupy and control a large area of the territory formerly under the control of the Republic. There was still sporadic fighting in some areas. The Commission reported on 11 September that casualties and damage were occurring. A month later it reported that the Dutch were still continuing to undertake 'mopping up' operations in the rural areas, which they had bypassed in their initial advance. Republican leaders declared that their own guerrilla operations would continue in these rural areas if the Dutch tried to extend their control there.
On 3 October the Security Council met to consider these reports. The Soviet Union and Poland called for a withdrawal of Dutch forces to the positions occupied before the 'police operation' began. Australia wanted at least a withdrawal to the positions held on 1 August, when the ceasefire resolution was passed. The United States, however, resisted now, as for a year or so to come, any moves likely to create too great difficulties for the Dutch.
Her representative held that the Good Offices Committee should be given general discretion to seek a settlement, but no specific line for withdrawal need be laid down. Eventually a compromise was reached. Agreement was found on a resolution which merely declared that the earlier ceasefire resolution of 1 August prohibited either party from altering 'substantially' the territory under its control on 4 August 1947 (when the ceasefire went into effect). This ruled out the Netherlands' contention that 'mopping-up operations' were permissible, but did not call for her forces to give up their gains since these operations had begun. Under the resolution the Good Offices Committee and the Consular Commission were to assist in ensuring observal)ce of it. The two parties were called upon to stop all further hostile action and to consult on the means of implementing the ceasefire. The resolution was passed on 1 November.
The Good Offices Committee arrived in Batavia on 27 October. After some dispute about where the negotiations between the parties should take place (the Dutch favouring Batavia, the Republic a place outside Dutch control), it was agreed that they should be held on board a US ship off the Indonesian coast. Meanwhile, to deal with the immediate issue of disengagement, a number of committees were formed, including representatives of the two sides and of the Commission. But these quickly ran into disagreements, arising from conflicting claims to authority in the rural areas. The Good Offices Committee felt that they were unlikely to be resolved unless the conversations were accompanied by some attempt to settle the underlying political disagreements.
Discussions of the wider issues therefore began on 8 December, on board the US warship Renville, off Batavia. After an abortive attempt to secure mutual agreement on the interpretation of the Linggedjati Agreement, the Good Offices Committee decided to put forward its own proposals. It did this in a message broadcast on Christmas Day. Essentially the proposal consisted in making a substantial conces sion to the Dutch on the military question, in return for concessions to the Republic on the long-term political issues. On the military side they proposed a new truce based on the van Mook line (the line claimed by the Dutch as the limit of their authority), with a demilitarised zone on either side of the line.
To balance this, it proposed, as a step towards a long-term political settlement, that Java, Sumatra and Madura would be largely restored to republican control, the Dutch would cease organising new states in these islands, elections would be held within a definite time-limit, a democratically chosen constituent assembly would then draft a constitution for the United States of Indonesia, and Dutch forces would in three months withdraw to their positions of 20 July.
As was to be expected, the Indonesians did not like the military proposals, nor the Dutch the political. After intensive negotiations the Duch produced a variation on the Committee's ideas which drastically reduced the role that would be played by the Republic in the forthcoming period. They then issued an ultimatum demanding acceptance of their own proposals, after which they would resume 'freedom of action'. The Committee would not accept this demand, which would have effectively put an end to negotiations. They proposed six additional principles, effectively modifying the twelve-point proposals of the Dutch, especially in recognising that the Republic would be one of the states of the union, that it would be accorded a reasonable share in the interim government to be established, and that there should be a plebiscite in Java, Sumatra and Madura to confirm the Republic's authority in these islands.
The Academic Career of Henning
