Canberra, 19 January 1965
Top Secret
With my Cabinet colleagues I have had the opportunity to consider your personal message of January 15th.3 We were impressed by the robustness with which your Government has approached the problem created by the continuing Indonesian aggression against Malaysia and we appreciated the frank and full exposition which you gave of the situation.
We share your concern over the build up of Indonesian forces. We have some misgivings about the difficulties which will face us all in endeavouring to match and contain further build up. It may be necessary to consider whether some of the offensive planning will not have to be put into operation in the event that this build up continues even if the Indonesians have not taken the additional action which we so far have deemed necessary to invoke the offensive plans.
We note that you feel the need to develop additional plans for offensive action in Borneo to be carried out in circumstances short of the execution of Plan ALTHORPE and with this we agree. We would hope to be consulted on these plans particularly as any additional commitments by us or the variation of the terms under which we employ our forces would have to be conveyed to the United States in view of our obligation under the ANZUS Treaty. In this regard we would be grateful for advice as to whether the Americans have been informed of your intention to undertake patrols into Indonesian territory in Borneo to a distance of 10,000 yards and to permit naval vessels to proceed on surveillance duties up to within three miles of Indonesian coastlines in the Malacca and Singapore Straits.
You will, of course, understand Australia’s particular problem in that our obligations in the South-East Asian area are tending to run in two directions. In addition to our commitment to assist you in the discharge of your defence obligations to Malaysia, we feel a deep concern over the situation developing in Vietnam and a strong desire to help our American allies in that theatre within the limits of our resources.
It seems to us that, more and more, the two conflicts in Vietnam and against Indonesia are coming to form part of a common pattern and a common threat. We must also bear in mind the possibilities of events on our frontier in New Guinea should relationships further deteriorate, and are not untroubled by the possible wide dispersal of our forces.
Thank you for the frankness of your message. Within the limits of our capacities we will continue to make our contribution to preserving the integrity of Malaysia and holding the Communists.
[NAA: A1209, 1964/6647 part 4]
1 Acting Prime Minister. Menzies was in London for the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill.
2 This message was sent through the British High Commission in Canberra. The text was sent to Sir Alexander Downer, High Commissioner in London, from Peter Lawler, Deputy Secretary, PMD, in cablegram 269 on 29 January.
3 See Document 236. Cabinet considered Wilson’s letter and the Defencc Committee’s report, ‘Current Malaysian Situation following Indonesian Build-up’, Submission No. 588, on 18 January.