Cablegram unnumbered HMAT KANIMBLA, 23 July 1947, 5 p.m.
IMMEDIATE PERSONAL SECRET
1. A.B.C. tonight broadcast a statement from Canberra that no answer had been received to the Australian request for postponement of the Conference in Washington on the Japanese settlement on the grounds that the Minister for External Affairs could not attend and further that if he could not another Minister would attend.
2. This broadcast is a diplomatic blunder of the first order and is likely to have the precise effect we are trying to prevent, i.e. an unrepresentative Conference at which Australia might be completely outmanoeuvred.
3. Please report facts and action.
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[AA : A4311/1, BOX 449]