Cablegram 26 WASHINGTON, 11 January 1949, 4.48 p.m.
IMPORTANT CONFIDENTIAL
INDONESIA
State Department conferred with Jessup and Cochran yesterday but final policy decisions have apparently not yet been made and Jessup has only tentative instructions.
2. United States thinking has been along the following lines.
(a) Dutch action must not be condoned and United States disapproval must be made clear directly and in the Security Council.
(b) Dutch withdrawal cannot now be secured because Dutch would not comply with Security Council order even if resolution could be got through which is next to impossible. In any event Dutch withdrawal now would result in chaotic conditions in evacuated areas. T.N.I.
has been reduced to isolated centres of resistance mainly in Sumatra and Republican Civil Administration has disintegrated.
Cochran considers withdrawal impracticable.
(c) Security Council should insist on supervision of steps taken by Dutch in accordance with their assurances. A definite date should be set for elections under Council supervision and a term set for transfer of sovereignty.
(d) Cochran considers that Committee of Good Offices has outlived its usefulness and should be replaced by another body established by the Council, staffed and equipped, e.g., with electoral experts, to carry out new functions.
(e) Full freedom of movement of Good Offices should [1] make contact with Soekarno and Hatta. (Assume Critchley has advised action taken by Committee to this end.) One immediate danger is that Dutch might persuade Soekarno and Hatta to join Interim Government. It is important that they should not do so except possibly on condition that Dutch submit to Security Council supervision.
(f) State Department anticipate Dutch will allow Military observers to see only selected areas and will try to give impression to observers that Republican guerrillas are terrorist gangs as Dutch contend. Council should insist that military observers have freedom of movement.
3. State Department information is that even some countries who have accepted invitation to New Delhi Conference are luke-warm e.g., Iran and Iraq. Turkey has indicated that it has no community of interest with Indonesia either on geographical or religious grounds. Assume you have full information on status of acceptances e.g. that Ceylon and China are sending observers only and that Siam has declined. Romulo is flying from here to represent Philippines, and Soemitro, Indonesian Trade Representative in the United States, is already in New Delhi.
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1 A sign here indicates ‘portion omitted in transmission.’ The sentence as a whole presumably read that full freedom of movement should be restored to the imprisoned Republican leaders and that the Committee of Good Offices should make contact with Sukarno and Hatta.
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[AA : A1838, 403/3/1/1, xx]