Cablegram D670 LONDON, 2 August 1947, 9.20 a.m.
IMMEDIATE SECRET
Indonesia.
We realise the considerations which have prompted Australia to propose in Security Council that action should be taken in Indonesian crisis under Article 39 of the Charter. This however would involve dismissing the Dutch contention that the matter is one of domestic jurisdiction under Article 2 (VII) [1] of the Charter. Moreover apart from the fact that action under Article 39 may possibly create difficulties in future for other Colonial powers it raises in an acute form question of exact juridical status of Indonesia. We do not contemplate giving Dutch unqualified support in their contention. But we feel strongly that if possible the Indonesian question should be dealt with in a way which does not raise these difficulties. The result we all desire is to put an end to hostilities and to arrive at a solution by negotiation and it seems to us that action by the Security Council under Articles 34-6 should prove sufficient for this purpose. It is not yet, at any rate, the case that the Security Council has itself made recommendations for a peaceful settlement which have been thrown aside and we feel that there are good prospects that a call by the Security Council upon the Dutch for peaceful procedure under Article 36(1) [2] might carry more weight than appeals which have hitherto been made by individual countries and might be accepted by Dutch without loss of face.
2. In these circumstances we have sent instructions to United Kingdom representative on Security Council to favour recourse to Article 35 when this subject is discussed.
3. We should be glad of your views and we naturally hope that the solution reached on this question of procedure will be one acceptable both to you and to India as well as to us.
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1 Article 2(7) of the United Nations Charter states that nothing contained in the Charter shall authorise the United Nations to intervene in matters which are ‘essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state’.
2 Under Article 36(1) of the United Nations Charter, the Security Council may, at any stage of a dispute likely to endanger international peace and security or of a situation of like nature, recommend ‘appropriate procedures or methods of adjustment’.
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[AA:A1838/274, 854/10/4, ii]