Cablegram 453 LONDON, 4 February 1949, 6.55 p.m.
RESTRICTED
Your telegram 400. [1]
INDONESIA
In addition to his conversation with the Foreign Secretary on 1st February reported in telegram 33 [2], the High Commissioner saw the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations on 4th February and stressed the need for immediate action on points mentioned and prompt negotiations under Security Council Resolution. [3] Noel- Baker said that United Kingdom is supporting the resolution strongly and would insist to the Dutch that they must make their full contribution towards carrying it out. He feels that the Dutch are now beginning to see that the Security Council means business and to realise the failure of Drees’s visit.
2. I have kept in touch with officials. They state today they have no further information regarding content of new proposals mentioned in my telegram 400. [4] They think Indonesians do not realise sufficiently the importance of planning now for the inevitable transfer of power next year as well as getting Interim Federal Government set up. They say United Kingdom is continuing to press Dutch to take action immediately to obey paras 1 and 2 of Security Council resolution (though they were doubtful about specifying Djokjakarta because of its unpopularity with Federalists).
3. Churchill’s public references to Dutch action against ‘monstrosities of chaos and Communism’ are not getting much attention but they have some influence.
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1 Dispatched on 3 February, it informed the High Commission in London that question such as the cease-fire and release of Republican prisoners required immediate action, that the Security Council resolution of 28 January should not be weakened and that Evatt’s message (Document 169) to Noel-Baker was still relevant.
2 Document 182.
3 Document 168.
4 Presumably a reference to Cablegram 415, dispatched on 2 February, in which Heydon pointed out that the Dutch were pressing several countries to have the Security Council instruct the acting United States representative on the UN Commission for Indonesia to allow the Netherlands Government a few days in which to develop new proposals on how best to implement the Security Council’s resolution (Document 168).
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[AA : A1838, 401/3/1/1, vi]