On 26 October 1945, Brigadier A. W. S. Mallaby reached an agreement with Mr Suryo, the Republic of Indonesia's governor of East Java, that the British would not ask Indonesian troops/militia to hand over their weapons.
Indonesian forces consisted of 20,000 soldiers from the newly formed Tentara Keamanan Rakyat (TKR; People's Security Troops) and an estimated 100,000-120,000 irregulars.