356

Burton to Evatt

Cablegram E41 CANBERRA, 29 September 1947, 6.20 p.m.

MOST IMMEDIATE SECRET PERSONAL

Your E15. [1] Eaton supports report which is merely warning that final report will probably have to recommend troop withdrawals.

Position is that Dutch claimed areas containing many Indonesian strongholds and have been ‘mopping up’ in them. Indonesians regard every movement of Dutch as breach hence fighting inevitable.

Basic trouble has been that Dutch have moved along veins of a leaf and then at cease fire, drew line around, claiming all area inside as occupied by them.

Dutch attitude to us at Hague, Batavia and Canberra far more favourable.

1 Dispatched on 28 September, it asked whether the interim report of the Consular Commission (see Document 344) conformed to Eaton’s reports.

[AA:A9420/1, 2]