Cablegram 182 CANBERRA, 8 April 1949, 11.30 p.m.
CONFIDENTIAL
By Prime Minister to Prime Minister telegram [1], Commonwealth Relations Office has informed us of discussion between Bevin and Acheson on Indonesia indicating that there is joint agreement that the preliminary meeting at Batavia affords an opportunity not to be missed for getting the parties together and for clearing away some of the obstacles to settlement. United Kingdom is instructing its representatives, including those at New York, to direct their efforts to ensuring that discussions open in Batavia as soon as possible and to inducing the parties to seize the opportunity now offered with a view to the early transfer of sovereignty.
2. In our reply we indicated that we had no confidence in success of the talks in Batavia and stressed the fact that we do not intend to allow the fact of the discussions being held to be used as an argument against full discussion of the problem in the Assembly. We must approach the Assembly on the assumption that the Dutch will not agree to immediate re-establishment of the Government and that failure to implement the resolution [2] of 28th January still stands.
3. It seems to us most important that Assembly discussion should not be damped down by propagation of expectations of the Batavia talks.
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1 Document 339.
2 Document 168.
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[AA : A1838, 854/10/4/3, iv]