Cablegram 165[1] , CANBERRA, 10 May 1948, 10.30 a.m.
In view of the conditions which have been outlined by you in your telegrams, and especially in Despatch KJ. 17, in which you not only point out that the majority of political parties will refuse to participate in the elections, but also give various instances of violence and intimidations, and state that the observation groups have been unable to carry out more than a few independent inquiries, your vote in the Committee in favour of observing the elections is surprising. However we do not think that it would serve any useful purpose for you to reopen the matter at this stage, but suggest that you should consider very carefully the form of the report to be made by the Committee to the General Assembly after the elections have been held, as it may, of course, be necessary, in the light of conditions prevailing on election day itself, for the United Nations to disassociate itself from the results.
We fully recognise that your knowledge of local conditions is a most important factor and the matter is, therefore, left to your discretion within the general outline of previous instructions.
_[1] Sent via Tokyo.
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[AA : A1838, 852/20/4, III]