Office of the Historian

856d.00/10–848

The Netherlands Embassy to the Department of State 1

undated

On October 1st the Netherlands delegation submitted to the Committee of Good Offices a memorandum concerning the alarming increase of the infiltration of armed Republican bands. This infiltration [Page 396] has reached such a dangerous scope that it can be qualified at this moment as a strategic movement of an army, taking into account that the number of units, involved in the infiltration amounted to 8000 men on August 31st. Although the Netherlands delegation during the last 6 months has many times protested this infiltration, the Committee of Good Offices did never succeed in bringing about the implementation of the Truce by the Republican authorities; for these reasons the Netherlands delegation is forced to consider the question whether or not the Republic takes the Truce seriously.

The deterioration of the situation has been ascribed by the Netherlands delegation to the following facts:

1)
That the Republican units have deliberately been left behind in the so-called Republican pockets, although the Truce provides that all Republican forces should be evacuated;
2)
that the units, who did evacuate, left behind many weapons and a large amount of ammunition, which were hidden in Netherlands territory;
3)
the re-infiltration of the evacuated troops, who after recovering their weapons and ammunition proceeded together with the guerillas and other T.N.I. units to sabotage and terrorisation.

It has definitely been established by evidence, which came into the hands of the Netherlands, that the infiltration action—because it can be qualified as one deliberately planned military operation—has been executed by the General Staff of the Republican armed forces with the wholehearted approval of the Republican Government, whilst the military observers attached to the Republican delegation in Batavia have actively participated in the execution of the action. These facts are borne out by many Republican documents, which have been submitted to the Committee of Good Offices. The Committee of Good Offices in a preliminary reply of October 3rd informed the Netherlands delegation that it wanted to await a report of the senior military advisers before suggesting definite steps.

  1. Handed by the Netherlands Counselor of Embassy (Helb) to Mr. Nolting on October 8.↩