Canberra, 1 May 1969
Secret
Papua/New Guinea border incident1
The Administrator of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, Mr D.O. Hay, has been in the border area in the past few days. Following discussions there he has come to the conclusion that it is imperative to establish early contact with the Indonesians in the Wutung area and that this should be followed by daily liaison so long as Indonesian armed forces are in the vicinity. The object of this contact would be to exchange information on dispositions and movements, establish that the border line is known and agreed, and avoid incidents, in particular further Indonesian incursions into TPNG.
2. The most appropriate method of establishing contact appears to be by the stationing of a senior uniformed police officer in the Wutung area. The way for this should be cleared by the Embassy in Djakarta but it is considered that it should be reinforced by a visit by a PNG Administration official to Djajapura. Hay has suggested that the official going to Djajapura might carry a letter from himself to the military commander for West Irian, General Sarwo Edhie (who visited TPNG earlier this year)2. The letter would authorise the official to discuss the setting up of regular liaison at the border with the purpose referred to in para. 1 above.
3. You may consider that these proposals are consistent with the suggestions made while you were in Djakarta for the Indonesians to pass information about the movements of refugees to us.
4. We believe that more direct contact in the border area should assist in preventing a recurrence of incidents such as occurred on April 26th.
5. The Minister of External Territories concurs in Mr Hay’s recommendation.
6. lt is recommended that you approve the attached draft telegram to the Ambassador at Djakarta instructing him to take up these proposals with the Indonesian Government.3
[NAA: A1838, 3034/10/1/4 part 5]
1 See document 264.
2 See Document 248.
3 Not printed. An annotation by Booker of 1 May reads: ‘Discussed with Minister. He was reluctant to approve of action which might further inflate press interest in the border incident. He agreed however that Mr. Jockel should be asked to propose [a] visit to [the] Indonesians and that it could take place when excitement had died down’. External Affairs received Indonesia’s acceptance of the proposal on 16 May (submission, Rowland to Acting Minister for External Affairs (possibly Fairhall), undated, NAA: A1838, 3034/10/1/4 part 5) and it was decided that the Australian delegation would be led by Royce Webb of DDA, accompanied by Ken Brown of the same department and J.M.C. Watson, Second Secretary of the Australian Embassy, Djakarta.