Memorandum Hague 338/49 CANBERRA, 7 November 1949
With reference to my telegram No. 188 [1] which described references to the residency of New Guinea, I desire to inform you that Dr. Mohammed Hatta in the course of a press interview on November 4th made the following reply to a query whether Indonesia would be willing to incorporate in the new United Republic the territories of British Borneo, Portuguese Timor and Australian Mandated New Guinea. ‘I do not know whether we should support any of these peoples if they made such a request. We should have to consider each case.’ The Republican delegation leader is reported to have added that he was not putting forward any claim for these territories.
2. On November 5th ‘an authoritative Indonesian source’ was reported to have said that the suggestion to incorporate New Guinea in the R.I.S. while continuing Dutch administration for 99 years had not been made during the New Guinea talks at the Round Table Conference. To avoid all misunderstanding he added that it should be made clear that the Federalist delegations’ only suggestions were to incorporate New Guinea in the R.I.S., to continue Dutch administration for a short time and to have discussions with the Netherlands on the subject at a later date.
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1 Dispatched on 4 November, it reported Sultan Hamid’s opinion that West New Guinea should pass to the United States of Indonesia but continue under Dutch administration ant Hatta’s view that it was regrettable that the issue had been left in abeyence.
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[AA : A8108/2, 305/1/1, ii]