790.5/4–2654: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Dillon) to the Department of State1
4070. The Indonesian Ambassador called on me today to discuss the proposed Southeast Asia pact. He said that his government was very much disturbed by reports emanating from The Hague that Holland was about to make a request to participate in this pact. The Ambassador said that due to the coming election early in 1955, Indonesia could take no position regarding joining such a pact. However, he said that his government had asked him to inform the US that they could well understand the reasons for the creation of an anti-Communist pact in Southeast Asia and that they would look on such a pact with benevolent neutrality. However, if Holland should be allowed to participate in the pact, thus in effect recognizing the Dutch position in New Guinea, there would be serious repercussions in Indonesia and the Indonesian Government would have to consider the pact as unfriendly to Indonesia. The Ambassador told me that his colleague in Washington had received similar instructions and would make similar representations to the Department.2 He had been instructed to duplicate this démarche in Paris in order to emphasize the gravity of the problem and to insure that it would be brought promptly to the attention of the Secretary at Geneva. He asked that he be kept informed of developments.3
- Repeated for information to Djakarta, Geneva, and The Hague.↩
- No record of a representation at this time by Ambassador Moekarto has been found in Department of State files.↩
- Walter K. Scott, Director of the Executive Secretariat, summarized this telegram in a memorandum of Apr. 30 to the Acting Secretary. He concludes: “Our Geneva Delegation comments that while there has at no time been any thought of inviting the Netherlands to participate in any such pact, there seems to be no necessity for stating this position to the Indonesians in reply to unsubstantiated reports. The delegation stated it is confident in Matthews’ ability to head off any prospective Dutch requests to participate.’ (7905/4–3054) H. Freeman Matthews, formerly Under Secretary of State, had presented his credentials as Ambassador to the Netherlands on Nov. 25, 1953.↩