501.BD/11–2746
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State
| Participants: | Mr. Acheson, Acting Secretary of State |
| Dr. Loudon, Netherlands Ambassador |
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The Ambassador then declared that he wished to speak informally with regard to the Netherlands-Indonesian Agreement and that his remarks were purely personal and should not be construed as a diplomatic démarche. He asked what we thought of the Agreement and I replied that we had welcomed the news that an Agreement had been reached by thhe Dutch commissioners and the Indonesians. I said we had given careful study to its text which appeared to provide a good working basis despite the fact that certain sections are admittedly vague. Dr. Loudon said that it was these vague provisions governing the “elaboration” (implementation) of the Agreement which cause him personal concern. “Where do we go from here?” he queried, using this phrase at frequent intervals. He expressed the personal conviction that the Catholic, Labor and Communist Parties in the Dutch Parliament would have sufficient votes to ratify the Agreement which he anticipated would occur within two weeks, possibly much sooner. He declared that Ambassador van Starkenborgh,32 with whom he talked yesterday, concurred in his optimism regarding ratification but was extremely pessimistic regarding the possibility of “elaborating” the Agreement. Dr. Loudon, on the other hand, is optimistic that the Agreement can be worked out but [Page 856] confessed some fear that in so doing the Indonesians might choose to be guided by Sjahrir’s political manifesto which attacked Western Capitalism as the Indonesians’ greatest enemy. Dr. Loudon expressed his keen personal desire that the resources of the Netherlands Indies should not be lost to western civilization and in support of his fears of developments that could be expected if the Indonesians were not reasonable, he cited a passage from a speech by Mr. John Carter Vincent, as reprinted in World Report for November 26, page 47, reading as follows: “I believe it is unsound to invest private or public capital in countries where there is widespread corruption in business and official circles, …33 where the threat or fact of civil war exists, where tendencies toward government monopolization exclude American business, or where undemocratic concepts of government are controlling.” To provide against immoderate or irrational demands by the Indonesians in “elaborating” the Agreement which would result in such a state of affairs in Indonesia and to provide a fillip for his personal optimism which he claimed was shared by none of his colleagues here, the Ambassador suggested that the US sound a note of warning to the Indos to use moderation and reason in negotiating with the Dutch in the implementation of the Agreement.
I told the Ambassador that his views were interesting to the Department. I pointed out, however, that I did not consider the present an appropriate time for the Department to issue any note of warning to the Indonesians but that a time might come when we would find his suggestion desirable. I said that after his views had been given careful consideration, I would discuss the matter again with him. In closing, he reiterated that his discussion of the Agreement was undertaken without instructions from his Government and that it should be regarded as a personal conversation without any of the implications of a diplomatic démarche.