Minute CANBERRA, 5 April 1949
DRAFT RESOLUTION ON INDONESIA
Attached herewith is a draft resolution [1] which it is considered might be submitted to the General Assembly.
The resolution has been drafted in such a manner as to take account of the limited powers of the General Assembly in relation to disputes which are being considered by the Security Council.
The resolution is similar in form to that used for the admission of new members, except that the expression ‘the General Assembly considers’ has been used in place of the expression ‘the General Assembly determines’.
The operative part of the text follows very closely the text of the New Delhi Resolution [2], but no dates have been inserted for the time limit within which the various stages are to be fulfilled.
An endeavour has been made to take account of the different situation from that which existed at the time of the New Delhi Conference, and the different circumstances in which the matter will be discussed. The more important factors are the Security Council Resolution [3] of January 1928, and the fact that this is the first time that Indonesia will have been discussed by the General Assembly. Because of this latter point, a long preamble has been used with a view to mentioning the more important developments which have occurred in the Netherlands-Indonesian relationships.
In addition, an attempt has been made to take into account the fact that the Indonesian question is being considered by the Security Council.
It is submitted that serious consideration should be given to the careful drafting of the final text in order to ensure that such text will obtain the overwhelming support of the General Assembly.
Failure to obtain the approval of the majority of Assembly Members to a reasonably strong resolution can only re-act unfavourably, strengthen considerably the hands of the Netherlands Authorities, and undermine, even further, the efforts of the Security Council to find a settlement.
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1 This was a first draft of the General Assembly resolution cabled to the Australian Delegation, United Nations, on 8 April (Document 346).
2 Document 144.
3 Presumably Document 168.
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[AA : A1838, 854/10/4/3, iv]