Cablegram 226 NEW DELHI, 28 March 1949, 7.40 p.m.
IMMEDIATE SECRET
INDONESIA
Our 225. [1]
Instructions which the Indian Government sent to their permanent United Nations representative (Sen) on 22nd March are paraphrased in my immediately following telegram from which it will be seen that at that period the Indian Government was quite prepared for joint action.
2. The paraphrased version of the above mentioned instructions reached us on the afternoon of Saturday, 26th March, with a covering note from Bajpai. Like part of his conversation the same morning outlined in our telegram under reference his note showed inconsistency with his earlier attitude, inasmuch as it disclosed an intention by India to adopt the initiative singly, although he described this as just a mere formality. The text of the note is given in our second following telegram.
3. To clarify matters, we saw Bajpai again this morning, when he produced the original of the amended instructions which he sent to Sen yesterday, 27th March. A paraphrase of this will be contained in our third following telegram. The unparaphrased version instructs Sen to take the initiative, (a) To bring the matter before the General Assembly under article No.11(2) [2], and (b) To convene a meeting of countries represented at the Delhi Conference.
The only reference at all suggestive of a joint approach was an injunction to Sen to work in co-operation with Hood, but we are not sure that India would publicly concede that there has been a joint initiative unless at any rate in regard to (a) you instruct Hood and ourselves to represent the position. It is not clear to us that you would desire to be associated in joint action under (b). Meanwhile, we have drawn Bajpai’s attention to the above inconsistency.
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1 Document 317.
2 Article 11(2) of the UN Charter states that the General Assembly May discuss questions relating to international peace and security brought before it by member States, the Security Council, or non- member States and that the General Assembly may make recommendations on all questions except those with which the Security Council is still dealing.
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[AA : A1838, 401/3/1/1, vi]