Memorandum 71 PARIS, 27 January 1949
In view of certain quite incorrect reports which have appeared in the Australian press on the Indonesia case before the Security Council, and adverse comments on my criticism [1] of the Dutch, I wish you would kindly invite the attention of the Minister to the Summary Reports, which show what I did in fact say, in case questions are raised in the House. The first allegation is that I said that action of the Dutch in Indonesia was worse than that of Hitler against Holland in 1940. After pointing out that the Indonesian delegation was given fifteen minutes notification, at 11.45 on 18th December, of the breaking of the Renville Agreement [2], and then found all communications with their Government severed, and that the American member of the Good Offices Commission was treated similarly, I said this was worse than the time limits given by Hitler to the Dutch in 1940. No mention whatever was made of comparable military operations.
The second misstatement was that I said the Netherlands should be expelled from the United Nations. The Netherlands representative [3] had just stated his Government were prepared to take all the consequences of their action. After mentioning the two Agreements which had been broken, and the four Security Council Resolutions which had been violated, despite assurances that they would be observed by the Dutch, and despite their obligation under Article 25 of the Charter [4], I stated that the full consequence of continued violations of Security Council resolutions would be the suspension of the Member, if the Security Council recommended accordingly.
Another untrue allegation was that it was an emotional speech, accompanied by table rapping and waving of arms. I have never been guilty of this in any speech or statement I have ever made, and make no gestures when speaking. Mr. Shann who was with me throughout all sessions, and who will be shortly returning to Australia, will confirm all the statements herein. Indeed we both remarked at the time how unjust and unfair the reports in the United Kingdom press were, but I never realised until I just saw the Australian papers, that the same remarks had been sent to Australia.
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1 See Document 449 in Volume XIII.
2 Document 22 in Volume XIII.
3 J.H. van Roijen.
4 Article 25 of the UN Charter states that members of the United Nations ‘agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council in accordance with the present Charter’.
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[AA : A1838, 401/3/1/1, xi]