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 stern resolution of the Security Council, condemning their "police action" last year.
Key point of the Batavia agreement was restoration, to the Nationalists, of Jogjakarta, the Republic's capital, which Dutch parachutists had seized (TIME, Dec. 27). It also provided for the release of the Republican leaders, including President Soekarno and Premier Hatta, whom the Dutch had hustled off to custody on Bangka Island. The Republicans in return promised to order their guerrillas to stop fighting. In The Netherlands, government leaders still worried whether Soekarno would be able to hold his hotheaded army leaders and leftist supporters to that promise. Both sides also agreed to attend a round-table meeting at The Hague to set up a federated United States of Indonesia.
There was one man last week who did not share in the high hopes for a lasting settlement. In his pleasant brick villa near Leiden, lean Bertho van Suchtelen liked to dream of the old days when he was governor of Sumatra East Coast—days to him of peace and order in the East Indies under the good Queen's kindly rule. When The Netherlands' Queen Mother Emma died, van Suchtelen had remained for a full hour before her wreathed picture in rigid mourning pose.
Fortnight ago he formally notified Queen Juliana that he would go on a hunger strike against the government's "wavering, incompetent and characterless" policy of appeasing the Nationalists. He went on a diet of fruit juice and unsweetened tea. His protest was in vain. This week van Suchtelen read the news of the government's agreement with the "rebels." This cup of tea was too bitter for him; discouraged, he broke his fast.