Cablegrams 151, 52 CANBERRA, [18 March 1949]
INDONESIA
Your telegrams U.N. 192 and 194. [1]
You should continue to do all you can to persuade the Council to stand firm on compliance with January resolution. [2] We feel it is inevitable that the Council will adopt some form of resolution based on the Canadian/Chinese suggestion [3] when it is trying to narrow down to the immediate question of restoration of the Republican Government at Jogja. The U.S. formula quoted in your telegram 192 goes much further than is desirable at this stage. In its present form it could be used by the Dutch to stall on the restoration of the Republican Government at Jogja and at the same time charge the Republic with blocking action ‘consistent with basic purposes’ of January resolution in a form proposed at conference at The Hague, or otherwise preventing the resumption of negotiations. Furthermore U.S. formula prejudges the question of where any round table conference or other negotiations should take place; we feel this is unnecessary at this stage.
As stated in my telegram 142 [4] there is no occasion for the Council to be seeking a compromise. The onus is on the Dutch to recognize that their present position is untenable and their attitude unreal, and that their avowed reasons for refusing to restore the Republican Government do not make sense. Van Royen’s claim that restoration of the Republic would be a betrayal of the federalists, for example, is somewhat feeble in the light of a firm stand [5] made by the B.F.O. on 3rd March and since confirmed in favour of restoration.
If the Council (and Palar) feel that there may be practical difficulties to be overcome in restoring the Republican Government at Jogja you could go along with a limited resolution on the lines of the first sentence of the American formula with omission of the first words ‘time and conditions to including the’ and perhaps addition of a deadline date. There is no need for second sentence at any rate at present.
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1 Documents 300 and 301.
2 Document 168.
3 See Document 293.
4 Document 295.
5 See Document 279.
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[AA : A10158, 9]