London, 4 March 1975
CONFIDENTIAL
EXTRACT
Portuguese Timor and Indonesia
- Senator Willesee1 informed Mr Callaghan of the Australian Government’s views on the future of Portuguese Timor, stressing the Government’s wish that the issues should not be hurried and there should be a ‘clean’2 act of self-determination recognised by the United Nations. Australia felt that it may be in the island’s best interest to remain with Portugal in the immediate future and had spoken with both the Indonesian and new Portuguese Governments on this point. Senator Willesee commented on current discussions of Portuguese Timor in Australia, and also on the changing situation within Indonesia: the increasing power of the Special Operations Unit, new waves of oppression, and what may be a new tendency for the Indonesian Government to criticise the United States of America.3
[NAA: Al838, 3038/10/1, xxiii]
- 1 Willesee had arrived in London on 2 March to attend the Commonwealth Ministerial Meeting on Food Production and Rural Development.
- 2 A marginal query suggests that the word ‘clear’ might be intended.
- 3 Curtin noted in the margin of the covering memorandum: ‘para 11 is disturbing’.