856E.01/6–1647
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State10
Lord Inverchapel called at 11 o’clock by appointment. He handed me an aide-mémoire and two other papers,11 one reporting the contents of a telegram from the British Ambassador at The Hague to the British Foreign Office and the other reporting the contents of a telegram from the British Foreign Office to the British Ambassador at Washington.
I read the aide-mémoire, which reviewed recent developments in regard to Indonesia and inquired “whether the United States Government would be prepared to make a joint offer with His Majesty’s Government of their good offices to bring the Dutch and Indonesians together again to seek agreement by peaceful means”. I told Inverchapel that we were prepared to make representations to the Dutch Government and to the authorities of the Indonesian Republic, strongly urging them to refrain from any use of force and advising them to get together in a further attempt to reconcile their differences. We were not, I told the Ambassador, prepared to join with the British Government in an offer of good offices.
There followed in general conversation with regard to the Indonesian problem during which Inverchapel said that the Indonesians had some suspicion that the Dutch were not playing fair with them and that he felt the Indonesians’ suspicions were justified. He referred to the attitude of the Commanding General of the Dutch forces as a man who was anxious to use force to settle the problem and to the attitude of the “die-hards” in Indonesia who were sticking out for full retention of Dutch rights in the Indies. I mentioned some experiences I had had with British “die-hards” in China back in 1926–27.
Inverchapel stated that he would inform Mr. Bevin12 of his conversation with me and in order to be sure there was no mistake he summarized what I had told him as to what we were prepared to do. He did not say whether the British alone would go ahead with their idea of making an offer of good offices, but he did express the fear that advice to the Dutch and Indonesians, unaccompanied by an offer of good offices, would probably not be effectual. Questioned by Mr. Vincent, he expressed the opinion that the British Government did not intend to make simultaneous offer of good offices and agreed that it would be appropriate to sound the Dutch out first.
[Page 950]I told Inverchapel that our telegrams to The Hague and Batavia would go out today. He then brought several matters unconnected with Indonesia to my attention.