Note OTTAWA, 3 February 1949
The latest telegram from Canberra (No.31 [1]) is a little surprising, not to say puzzling, since the previous message (No.
29 [2]) was entirely concerned with the United States resolution [3] for the Security Council, which our Government felt was being sabotaged, but by the time telegram 29 reached us, the American resolution had already been discussed in the Security Council and, according to the press reports we have, had been adopted without substantial change. Canada supported it.
The main provisions of the Security Council resolution were as follows:-
(1) It called on the Dutch to release the Indonesian Republican leaders and re-establish the Republican Government.
(2) It created a United Nations Indonesian Commission to supervise elections for a United States of Indonesia (the Commission comprises Australia, Belgium and the United States).
(3) It instructed the Indonesian Commission to recommend withdrawal of Dutch troops from Republican territory as it saw fit and to assist in restoring Republican administration.
(4) It recommended that elections be held and sovereignty transferred by the Dutch to the Republic by 1st July, 1950.
This resolution appears to differ from the wishes of the Delhi Conference [4] and those of Australia in only one important point:
it does not demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Dutch troops.
It was no doubt because the Security Council had already acted on the American resolution, and because the Council’s decision might have appeared to go a considerable way to meet the complaint expressed in telegram 29 that Mr. Pearson was not inclined to offer any comment on the latter.
The main point seems to be that Canberra’s telegram No. 29 arrived here after the Security Council had completed its discussion. The matter in it was, therefore, already rather academic when it reached Mr. Pearson and it is difficult to see what reply he could possibly give now.
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1 Dispatched on 2 February, it requested the High Commission in Ottawa to ascertain Pearson’s response to Evatt’s message to Noel- Baker (Document 169).
2 Dispatched on 29 January, it conveyed the text of Document 169.
3 Document 168.
4 Document 144.
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[AA : A3100/1, G49/124]