Cablegram 156 BATAVIA, 25 May 1947, 4.45 p.m.
IMMEDIATE SECRET
Your telegrams 127 [1] and 128. [2]
Before your telegrams were received the Dutch had last night Saturday, held a Press Conference and officially put out the news that a joint request to the Australian Government has been signed and transmitted. The Press generally had been aware of the story (though not of all its details) since Friday night, and it is not improbable that some of them have the text of the joint letter.
The B.B.C. [3] announced this morning that the Netherlands East Indies and the Republican Governments had made a joint approach to the Australian Government.
As the basic assumption underlying your telegram No 127 is no longer valid owing to the changed circumstances, I think that the matter should be referred back to you before I take any action.
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1 Document 67.
2 See Document 67, note 2.
3 British Broadcasting Corporation.
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[AA:A1838/278, 401/4/4/1, iv]