After four years of bitter fighting and endless negotiations, it looks as Indonesia would get the freedom it wanted, though both continue to cooperate with each other.

A few hours before dawn, a bleary-eyed night porter at The Hague’s stuffy Hotel des Indes (named for The Netherlands’ once vast and profitable colonies) opened the heavy oaken door for a weary guest, who went promptly to his room, and to sleep. He was slim, patient Jan Herman van…

The Dutch, Indonesians and the U.N. Commission for Indonesia met to put the finishing touches on a Dutch-Indonesian agreement. The Dutch would peacefully return capital Jogjakarta.

In the roof-garden ballroom of Batavia’s elegantly seedy Hotel des Indes, 40 white-suited delegates and aides representing the Dutch, the Indonesians and the U.N. Commission for Indonesia met one evening last week to put the finishing touches on a Dutch-Indonesian agreement. After a quiet 45 minutes in the steamy 90°…

Peace seemed finally in sight in the long-drawn war between the Dutch and the Indonesian Nationalists. In Batavia, the U.N. Commission for Indonesia announced a cease-fire agreement.

Last week, peace seemed finally in sight in the long-drawn war between the Dutch and the Indonesian Nationalists. In Batavia, the U.N. Commission for Indonesia announced a cease-fire agreement. Worn down by Nationalist guerrilla fighting and worried by Communist advances in Asia, the Dutch had finally given in to the…

For the first time in five years Batavia echoed to the burst of festive fireworks rather than lethal gunfire. The occasion was the signing of a long-delayed agreement (TIME, Dec. 23).

Mercurial President Soekarno was too preoccupied to comment. He was busy discussing his favorite hobby—painting—with a visiting artist. But elsewhere in Java last week Indonesians were delirious with joy. After 19 long months of bloody warfare, at least a measure of peace and independence had come to Indonesia…