856D.00/10–1045
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Acheson)
The Netherlands Ambassador9 called at his request. He handed me the attached report to the Netherlands Government from Mr. Van Mook.10 He asked the Department to keep this confidential because he did not believe that it would be desirable to have it shown to the British.
The Ambassador said that the Van Mook memorandum represented the official Government view. What he was about to say represented his own view of the serious situation in the East Indies.
- 1.
- He said the situation in the Indies is one of the costs of the overall strategy which directed that all efforts should be centered on the main attack against Japan. The Netherlands Government had foreseen the development of the conditions now existing in the Indies, but due to the overall strategy it was not able to get any shipping, arms or training for troops who could take charge.
- 2.
- He said that the two leaders of the nationalist movement were both collaborators and prior to the war had been to Moscow, and he believed that they were Communist-inspired. He thought that their movement represented Japanese influence which would keep alive the Japanese underground until our hold upon Japan relaxed. The movement also represented a foothold of Communism in a part of the Far East where it would cause a great deal of difficulty.
- 3.
- The Ambassador said that he regretted the change in the delineation of the commands in the Pacific which transferred the East Indies [Page 1164] from MacArthur’s11 command to Mountbatten’s. He regretted this because the British did not have the forces, or apparently the will, to do anything about the Indies or to help the Dutch do anything. The British apparently were using what forces they had in Burma, Indochina and Malaya, with the Dutch Indies a bad last. The Ambassador felt that the Dutch people felt that they had been abandoned by their allies after having behaved well and with sacrifice to themselves in the Far East.
The Ambassador said he was not asking for any action on our part, but wished to bring these matters to my attention in the hope that I would bring them to the Secretary’s attention. He said that he was asking for an appointment with the Secretary. I told him that our conversation would be brought to the Secretary’s attention.