856d.00/10–848
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Chief of the Division of United Nations Political Affairs (Bancroft)
| Participants: | Dr. Wang Shih-chieh1 —China |
| Secretary Marshall | |
| Harding F. Bancroft—USDel |
I was present at a meeting between the Secretary and Dr. Wang of China.
Dr. Wang first raised the issue of some difficulties which the Chinese were encountering in getting arms shipments to China. The Secretary said that he would look into this when he was in Washington over the weekend.
The Secretary then referred to Dr. Wang’s letter2 which had mentioned the desirability of a prompt solution of the Indonesian question. The Secretary said he thoroughly agreed with that and that the United States was making maximum efforts in this direction. He said that there was complete unanimity between Dr. Graham, Mr. du Bois, and Mr. Cochran, our three representatives on the Good Offices Committee, as well as the United States military men in the Netherlands East [Page 395] Indies and the State Department that the Dutch had been deliberately stalling the completion of an agreement with the Republic.
The Secretary said that Mr. Stikker, the Dutch Foreign Minister, had made a special trip to Washington to see him just before the Secretary left for Paris. The Secretary said that he had talked very frankly and plainly to Mr. Stikker and had told him the United States position. Mr. Stikker had said that he was having trouble with the Dutch Parliament and that in the Dutch view it was inappropriate to hold elections as early as January 1949 because of the possibility that the Communists would get too strong a hold. The Secretary told Dr. Wang that since then the Communists have come out in the open and there is active hostility between the Hatta Government and the Communists. Accordingly, this would seem to eliminate the Dutch objection to the January elections and if the objection continued it would appear to be further evidence of stalling. The Secretary said that we would continue as we had in the past to exert full pressure upon the Dutch to the end that agreement would be reached and an election held. The Secretary said that he was not sure that there was any room for compromise but there was a possibility that a date later than January but earlier than the summer of 1949 might be acceptable so long as it was a definite date and did not depend on Dutch discretion.
Dr. Wang said that unless a settlement was reached soon there was a possibility that the Hatta Government would fall. The Secretary replied that in such a case it was not unlikely that the Dutch would resume hostilities. Dr. Wang said in such event the several thousand Chinese in the Netherlands East Indies would suffer as they had before and it was therefore important to avoid that. The Secretary agreed and pointed out that military action could only be a very temporary solution. Dr. Wang replied that the nationalism in Indonesia was so widespread that there was no possibility of a permanent solution resulting from Dutch military action.
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