Cablegram, Washington, 12 December 1951
2100. CONFIDENTIAL
Japanese Peace Treaty.
From discussions with Allison and Cowen, it would appear that ratification is to be expected by at latest end of March or first week in April. The Peace Treaty together with the Tripartite Pact with ourselves and New Zealand and Philippines, United States Treaty will be submitted to Senate as ‘one packet’. When I saw President yesterday he said he saw no reason why Pacific Pact should not go through Congress without difficulty.
_PUBLIC STATEMENTS BY CASEY - JANUARY TO FEBRUARY 1952 In a January press release Casey spoke of the relationship between the Security Treaty and the Japanese Peace Treaty, ‘Recognising that everything we wanted could not be obtained in the Peace Treaty the Government obtained the Tri-partite Pacific Security Pact said Mr. Casey. By this Mutual Security Pact Australia has the advantage of close defence link-up with our powerful friend the United States of America’.[1] Although the Tripartite Security Pact was viewed in conjunction with the Japanese Peace Treaty, it was also discussed in terms of its limitations and the relationship it would have with existing security networks. Casey stated, ‘while it does not provide the complete and final answer to the maintenance of peace and security in the Pacific, it will make a great advance in that direction’, and, ‘the treaty is not intended to replace or supplant the general system of world security which the United Nations was designed to establish, nor will it supersede defence arrangements made within the British Commonwealth’.
In his 21 February statement to the House Casey discussed the mutual obligations of the three parties and the establishment of a Council that would give effect to the treaty and ‘provide a means for the closest consultation and planning on the basis of self-help and mutual aid’.[2] Casey then commended the Bill to the House of Representatives who after three debates approved it on 4 March, passing the Bill to the Senate the following day, who after debate approved it without amendment on 6 March.
1 Current Notes, vol. 23, 1952, p. 49.
2 Current Notes, vol. 23, 1952, p. 98.
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[NAA : AA1984/25 1951, v]