Cablegram E74 CANBERRA, 20 October 1947, 1.55 p.m.
SECRET PERSONAL
Committee of Three are down to work [1] and Kirby states that their relationships could not be better. We have accommodated them at Lapstone, and the informality has helped tremendously to establish good relations. They will probably proceed to the area in a few days.
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1 Formally titled the ‘Committee of Good Offices on the Indonesian Question’, the Committee assembled at the Lapstone Hotel on 19 October. At its first official meeting on 20 October, the Committee agreed that its members would participate in its work ‘with equal rights and responsibilities, not representing either of the contending parties but acting as a body in the spirit of the purposes and principles of the United Nations’. It was also decided that the chairmanship of the Committee would be held in turn by the three members, each member holding office for a week.
Kirby was the first chairman.
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[AA:A9420/1, 2]