Letter BATAVIA, 27 May 1949
Following on the discussions which occurred during the visit to Indonesia by the Australian Goodwill Mission [1], the Australian Government desires to offer to the Republic of Indonesia, as the first stage of a programme of educational assistance, and in accordance with the spirit of resolutions regarding reconstruction adopted by UNESCO, two Senior Fellowships and one Junior Fellowship to be available for study within Australia. These Fellowships will be open to both men and women.
The purpose of the Senior Fellowships is to provide higher training facilities and general experience within Australia to two senior persons who may or may not be University graduates and who are already employed in responsible work, preferably connected with the development of Indonesia. It is hoped that the provision of facilities for such persons to enable them to study Australian developments within their own fields will constitute a direct contribution to the development of your country. These facilities need not necessarily be of the types available from academic institutions. The Australian Government is prepared to make special arrangements with one or more of its own Departments, or with State Departments, or with private firms, to ensure that the selected Fellows are afforded the educational experience that they require.
The selected students will be given appropriate training and experience for a period of from six to twelve months. During their stay in Australia, they will be paid living allowances valued (after taxation deductions necessary under Australian Law have been made) at about 11 (Australian) per week, and certain additional funds will be available to meet the costs of necessary travel within Australia, tuition, books and instruments. Costs of travel to and from Australia will be paid by the Australian Government which also will arrange for suitable reception and accommodation.
The purpose of the Junior Fellowship is to provide opportunities of post-graduate study at an Australian educational institution for a student who has recently completed a course of academic, professional, rural or technical training, but whose eventual contribution to the development of Indonesia may be increased by a further period of training. It is not desired to specify the fields of study. The selected student will be provided with a living allowance valued at about 7 (Australian) per week (after taxation deductions) and additional funds will be available to meet the costs of essential tuition, books, instruments and travel within Australia. Duration of the period of training under Fellowship will be from six months to two years. Costs of travel to and from Australia will be paid by the Australian Government which will also arrange for suitable reception and accommodation, as in the case of the Senior Fellows.
If you accept this offer, the Australian Government would be glad if you could arrange for the preliminary selection of six or seven of the best applicants for the Senior Fellowships and of three or four of the best applicants for the Junior Fellowship, arranging each group in an order of precedence based both on the qualifications of the applicants and the relevance of the proposed study to the development of Indonesia. The reason for suggesting that you should select more than two Senior Fellows and one Junior Fellow is our desire to implement this scheme as soon as possible.
If nominations of six or seven applicants for Senior Fellowships and of three or four applicants for Junior Fellowships can be made, every endeavour will be made to place the first two applicants nominated by you for the Senior Fellowships and the applicant first nominated for the Junior Fellowship for them to commence work in Australia as soon as practicable; but if this proves impossible in the time now available, selection might then be made of the next applicants, in the order of nomination, whom it is possible to place.
A full and exact statement of the forms of educational experience required, and also of the duties performed by the nominees in their present positions and those which would be performed on return to their country, would enable our educational authorities to make precise arrangements in advance of the students’ arrival.
We would also like to know something of the educational history, family background and general interests of Fellows, and to receive any other information that will help us to make arrangements for their reception and entertainment.
The services of this Office will be available to assist your selection authority with advice as to the degree of fluency in English that will be essential for study in Australia.
Certain requirements as to health will need to be observed by Fellows. If they come by air they will require a vaccination certificate issued within the last three years and signed or countersigned by your Health Department. An X-ray of the chest (accompanied by the radiological films, when available) should be forwarded with the nominations of prospective Fellows. Those finally selected would of course be subject to the general health examination made of all entrants into Australia.
I understand that you have three candidates in mind for preliminary selection and that on your return to Djocjakarta you will arrange for the selection of further candidates, along the lines my Government has requested. In this connection, I feel that I should advise you that Fellows who intend to follow a course of study at some academic or technical institution could not now arrive until the academic year was more than half over, and therefore, would probably do better to wait until the beginning of 1950, while other Fellows, whose work is not going to be subject to the exigencies of the academic year, might proceed to Australia without delay as soon as we have finalised initial arrangements.
I have already had, Sir, the honour of discussing this matter with you and you will be aware that the foregoing is largely the substance of a letter which it had been hoped could have been delivered to you well before the end of 1948. I deeply regret that the unhappy events of the intervening months should have prevented this and should have delayed the selection of the Republican Fellows and their travel to Australia. However, you will be aware also, that certain difficulties, concerning the allocation of the Fellowships between the Republic and the non-Republican areas and the travel regulations governing the Republican Fellows, still have to be settled with the Netherlands authorities before the arrangements set out in this letter may be implemented.
I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to you, Sir, the assurance of my high consideration.
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1 See Document 167 in Volume XIII.
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[AA : A4357/2, 352/i]