743.13/2–2450: Telegram
The Ambassador in Australia (Jarman) to the Secretary of State
53. Burton1 told us today that Lacy had recently discussed with Australian Embassy, Washington, the Romulo Conference in March re Pacific Pact.2 Added Australia has received invitation and that Spender3 desires talk with me soonest (27th, if possible) about US viewpoint on Romulo conference, in particular, and Pacific pact in general. Spender wishes know our viewpoint as background not only in deciding whether accept Romulo invite but also in preparing his speech for the full dress review of Foreign Affairs in Parliament scheduled for next week. Burton added Australia favors in principle some kind of pact (Embtel 46 February 21)4 but desires avoid taking opposite side from Nehru.
Romulo proposal certainly not kind of pact Spender has publicly advocated and would probably not prove acceptable Australia, unless there were evidence of strong, immediate or ultimate US backing.
Please instruct urgently.
- Dr. John W. Burton, Secretary of the Australian Department of External Affairs.↩
- The memorandum of the conversation between William S. B. Lacy, Director of the Office of Pacific and Southeast Asian Affairs, and Owen Davis, First Secretary of the Australian Embassy, February 22, is not printed (790.5/2–2250).↩
- Percy C. Spender, Australian Minister of External Affairs. For Spender’s account of developments regarding East Asian-Pacific regional problems during 1950 and 1951, see Sir Percy Spender, Exercises in Diplomacy: The ANZUS Treaty and the Colombo Plan (New York: New York University Press, 1969).↩
- In telegram 46, February 21, the Embassy in Canberra reported that Spender had publicly urged the formation of a Pacific Pact to counter the Communist advance in Southeast Asia. The Minister of External Affairs had envisaged a pact built around Australia, New Zealand, and Britain/with the hope that the United States would ultimately join. (743.13/2–2150)↩