Canberra, 24 January 1951
3. SECRET IMMEDIATE
Your No. 2 of 16th January.1
Colombo Plan – Next Meeting of Consultative Committee
The Australian Government accepts with thanks your invitation to send a delegation at the official level to the meeting of the Consultative Committee in Colombo commencing 12th February. The names of the Australian Delegation will be communicated to you later. Would you kindly arrange accommodation for four members.
2. We agree with the items suggested by you for the agenda and we have nothing further to propose at this stage.
3 . We agree with the terms of the proposed invitation to non-Commonwealth countries, as revised in your No.4 of 22nd January,2 and to the U.S.A.3
4. In accepting your invitation to attend the meeting we feel that we should not trespass further on your hospitality and are also of the opinion that each Government should pay for the expenses of its delegation.4
[NAA: A9879, 2202/B]
1 Document 136.
2 Document 140.
3 See Document 136.
4 On 18 January Gordon Walker dispatched a telegram to the Government of Ceylon, repeated to the Australian Government, in which he indicated that the UK Government preferred that invitations to non-Commonwealth countries should not be accompanied by a specific request to bring development programs with them.