Lot 54 D 423
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Rusk)
Subject: Visit of the Indonesian Foreign Minister
| Participants: | Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmad Subardjo |
| Ambassador Ali Sastroamidjojo | |
| Secretary of State Dean Acheson | |
| Assistant Secretary of State Dean Rusk |
The Indonesian Foreign Minister, accompanied by Ambassador Ali, called on the Secretary of State and remained about 30 minutes.
After the usual exchange of courtesies, the Foreign Minister said that the Indonesian Delegation was here under precise instructions from the Indonesian Government and that, under these instructions, the Foreign Minister would report daily to his government on developments in San Francisco. He said that the Cabinet would make the decision as to whether Indonesia would sign the Treaty. Indonesia was generally sympathetic to the broad foreign policy of the United States. The fundamental problems in the Japanese Peace Treaty, from Indonesia’s point of view, arise in the economic clauses. The Foreign Minister said that the Indonesian Government was grateful for the recognition in the Treaty of the principle of reparations but that it was not clear how such principles would be implemented. He referred also the importance of the fishing problem since the re-entry of Japanese fishing vessels into Indonesian waters raised the spectacle of a new Japanese imperialism in that area. He referred to the “most useful discussion” which he had had the day before at luncheon with [Page 1319] Mr. Dulles and Mr. Rusk1 and said that, in order to be as helpful as possible he had drafted Indonesia’s views in terms of amendments to the Treaty (copy of which is attached).2
The Secretary of State told the Foreign Minister that we hoped that there was broad agreement between Indonesia and the United States on the “big purpose” of the Conference and of the Treaty. If we could reach agreement on the big purposes, some of the important but lesser matters could then be worked upon in an effort to find a satisfactory conclusion. The Secretary said that the big purpose of the Conference and the Treaty was to make peace with Japan and to return the Government of Japan to the Japanese. He said that the United States felt that the military occupation must be brought to an end and that the American people did not wish to continue in the position of telling the Japanese how to run their affairs. He thanked the Foreign Minister for the expression of his views in writing and told him that we would be in touch with the Indonesian Delegation today or tomorrow about them. The Secretary did not wish to comment on them until he had had an opportunity to study them in detail.
Ambassador Ali then said that he agreed that the big purpose of the Conference was to make peace with Japan and that Indonesia was in sympathy with that purpose. He said, however, that Indonesia must also be deeply interested in the peace of Indonesia and that the obstacles to peace in Indonesia lie in the economic field. He said that most of the difficulties which Indonesia has found in launching its new nation derive from economic problems. He said that Indonesia would like to see some of these problems dealt with adequately in the Japanese Peace Treaty; if that were not possible, it might be possible to reach a satisfactory result through some other arrangement, perhaps of a bilateral sort. He indicated that a bilateral agreement between Indonesia and Japan, supported by the United States, might be a means for meeting the problem.
The Secretary and Mr. Rusk both said that we would look at their views very carefully, that we had been and are sympathetic to Indonesia’s economic problems, and that we would consider what might be done to be helpful.
[Here follows a discussion of issues outstanding between Indonesia and the Netherlands.]
The conversation was friendly throughout and we had the impression that the Indonesians would be interested in signing the Treaty if [Page 1320] they could get some reasonable assurance that a satisfactory arrangement could be worked out on the economic questions they raised.
- Record of this conversation is contained in telegram Cosan 5 to Washington, September 2, repeated to Djakarta, not printed (694.001/9–251).↩
- Not printed. Minister Subardjo in part quoted, and in part summarized, these amendments in his speech of September 7 before the Conference. For text, see Department of State, Conference for the Conclusion and Signature of the Treaty of Peace with Japan: Record of Proceedings (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1951), pp. 219–224.↩