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Department of External Affairs to Australian Delegation, United Nations

Cablegram UNY464 CANBERRA, 7 December 1946

MOST IMMEDIATE SECRET

Your UN.913. [1]

Discussions should be informal and completely non-committal. We are surprised that this has not been undertaken as part of normal prudent practice so usual in international conferences. At the same time External Territories are of opinion that under no circumstances will Australia tolerate Chinese infiltration into New Guinea of character so disastrous in Malaya and elsewhere.

Your previous proposals for modification were tentatively approved on your assurances that agreement would not otherwise be modified.

Present process of attrition leading to appeasement is very disturbing. There should be closest contact with all delegations and absence of social contact means absence of opportunity to discuss such matters informally.

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1 Document 277.

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[AA:A4311, BOX 481]