On the evening of 18 September 1963, British-owned homes, businesses, and cars throughout Jakarta were systematically attacked by groups of militant Indonesians with accurate information on their whereabouts. Trade unions affiliated with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) also began taking over British companies and officers. Over the next two days, PKI-affiliated trade unionists seized control of Royal Dutch Shell installations and British rubber estates throughout out the country. In response to the PKI's calls for the nationalization of all British firms based on a blueprint developed during the West New Guinea dispute with the Dutch, the Indonesian Government officially took the seized British properties into "protective custody" and ended worker control. These aggressive take-overs, coupled by the severance of trade relations with Malaysia on 21 September 1963, exacerbated Indonesia's economic woes. The British Government viewed the destruction of the British Embassy and the takeovers of British assets in Indonesia as part of Jakarta's tactic of raising the tempo of its Confrontation with Malaysia.