Cablegram 17 CANBERRA, 29 January 1949, 11.45 a.m.
IMMEDIATE
Please give following message to Noel Baker from Minister.
‘This is a personal message, but I feel I should point out to you that five members of the British Commonwealth meeting at New Delhi have taken a definite stand on the Indonesian question in the interests of the United Nations. I feel that failure to support them in the interests of the Dutch, who are proved aggressors (see the Committee of Good Offices Report [1]) is very dangerous to British Commonwealth solidarity. At the present juncture at New York there is a postponement obviously designed to permit the Dutch to make some announcement or promise so as to detract support from the United States resolution. [2] These are the tactics that they have used on many occasions before and we should not be further misled. We have delayed recognition of Israel for many months solely at your repeated requests. A similar regard for the British Commonwealth countries in this part of the world should fairly be expected from you. Cadogan’s attitude at New York, in the opinion of our own people and of other countries including the United States, has been simply one of appeasement against the considered judgment of five members of the British Commonwealth.’
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1 See Document 444 in Volume XIII.
2 See Document 168.
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[AA : A1838, 854/10/4/3, iii b]