OTTAWA, 23 December 1948
Discussed with Mr. Escott Reid, Acting Under-Secretary of State for External Affairs, the Indonesian question following on my interview with him two days ago. [1] When I questioned him as to the possibility of seeing Mr. Pearson, he said that Mr. Pearson was absolutely jammed up with a cabinet meeting and very urgent interviews today, but that he (Mr. Reid) could give me the Government’s view because he had had discussions with Mr. Pearson on the matter. He went on to say: ‘The Canadian Government is as disturbed as the Australian Government at the possible effect of the shooting in East Asia and the only people who unfortunately can gain by it are the Communists. We are supporting the “cease- fire” portion of the resolution before the Security Council but we feel that it would be most unwise to press things against the Dutch too far. In the past, sanctions have not been imposed by the Security Council on States such as the neighbours of Greece or against other Soviet Satellites which have violated the Charter.
In the light of that very recent past, we feel that it would not be appropriate to threaten sanctions against a State such as the Netherlands, which, apart from this one episode, has been a faithful member of the United Nations. We were disturbed to read in the press that Australia might press for expulsion of the Netherlands; we hope that that story is not correct.’
_
1 Presumably Documents 401 and 426.
_
[AA:A3100/1, G48/124]