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…

Delegates assembled for a conference in The Hague to solve the Indonesian problem. Most hopeful aspect was that both sides knew they could not get what they wanted by force.

The Hague blossomed with bronze faces and bright native costumes last week as some 200 Dutch and Indonesian delegates assembled for a round-table conference in The Netherlands’ staid capital. With the U.N.’s Commission for Indonesia looking on, the delegates in The Hague’s ancient Hall of Knights expected to spend…

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…

Last week, for the third time since World War II ended, there was war in Indonesia between The Netherlands troops and native nationalists.

Last week, for the third time since World War II ended, there was war in Indonesia between The Netherlands troops and native nationalists. The Dutch started it. As they had before, they called it “police action”—a necessary step which, they said, they had been “regretfully obliged” to take…

If the fall of China meant a Communist Far East (as European statesmen assumed that it ultimately would) then Marshall Plan dollars would not be able to help Europe much.

“You never hear the one that hits you,” the soldiers say. This observation, both comforting and terrifying, applies also to the great nations and civilizations now on history’s casualty lists. When disaster comes they are looking the other way, or else they are certain that the disaster does not matter…

The effect of the U.N. truce agreement between the Dutch and the Indonesian Republic is working out slowly. The Dutch were accused of stalling to avoid any kind of settlement.

To set against its long list of futile endeavors, the United Nations could point to a few modest successes. One was the truce agreement between the Dutch and the Indonesian Republic. Last week that small star in U.N.’s crown was fading fast.

Stalemate. The hitch did not result from lack…

Because of the violations the truce and agreement between The Netherlands Government and Rep. of Indonesia, the Dutch struck, plunging into a war of white men against brown men.

At midnight the Dutch struck. Troops seized the radio, the cable office, and Republican government buildings in Batavia, seat of the Dutch administration in Java. Next day, Dutch planes struck at the Republic’s weak air force (about 40 old Japanese planes), which they caught on the ground. With artillery preparation,…

The United States of Indonesia, conceived as an equal partner with The Netherlands under the House of Orange, was born in Batavia last week.

The United States of Indonesia, conceived as an equal partner with The Netherlands under the House of Orange, was born in Batavia last week. Dutch and Indonesian representatives initialed a draft agreement providing for a three-way division of The Netherlands East Indies: first, the Indonesian Republic, comprising the islands of …

Indonesian peacemaking excursion: the stubborn Dutch and fanatic Indonesians had found a middle ground. Indonesia would become an autonomous partner under the Dutch crown.

Britain’s diplomatic cleanup man had another vanquished crisis under his belt. Beaming baronially as he deplaned in Amsterdam last week after an 8,900-mile flight from Batavia, hump-nosed, ruddy Lord Inverchapel (Sir Archibald Clark Kerr in his pre-peerage days) gave a thumbnail report on his Indonesian peacemaking excursion. The Indonesians, he…

After four years of defeat, imprisonment and abuse, the Dutch in Indonesia are morose, sullen and apparently unable to cope with the vigorous native independence movement.

TIME Correspondent Robert Sherrod witnessed the faces of men fighting and dying on New Guinea, Attu, Saipan, Tarawa, Iwo and Okinawa. Last week he beheld what he described as “the most tragic face I have seen in the war.” The place was Batavia’s Koningsplein Railway Station. The face was that…

Determined Dr. Van Mook had pressed for a semi-autonomous Indonesia. World opinion will not stand for the use of force by the Dutch, said a British spokesman.

A brooding quiet settled over Indonesia. It was the quiet of a faintly smoking volcano. Here & there snipers’ rifles cracked. But mostly the British and Dutch sat waiting behind their guns in strongholds of European authority like Batavia, Surabaya, Semarang, Bandung. Beyond these cities, in the rich hinterland of…

British, French and Dutch proconsuls gathered to discuss on a new policy toward 94 mil. rebellious colonials in Asia. Java is the most troublesome and disaffected region.

In the bastion of empire the proconsuls gathered. To Singapore, at the request of handsome Lord Louis Mountbatten, Allied “Supremo” for Southeast Asia, hurried Britain’s genial Lieut. General Sir Philip Christison, commander in Indonesia; France’s dashing Major General Jacques Leclerc, commander in Indo-China; Holland’s determined Hubertus J. van Mook, Acting…

The white man was back in The Netherlands East Indies, but in paltry force. The yellow man’s rule was broken, but he had not gone. Both of them had lost face.

In the book of Djayabhaya, the Hindu king who ruled a vast Javanese empire eight centuries ago, it was written that a white man would come one day to Indonesia. He would stay to rule the islands many years. Then, for the three-year “life of a hen,” a yellow man…