756C.022/2–2553
No. 245
Memorandum of Conversation, by the
Director of the Office of Philippine and Southeast Asian Affairs
(Bonsal)
Subject:
- United States Position with Regard to Dutch New Guinea (Irian)
Participants:
- Mr. F. S. Tomlinson, Counselor, British Embassy
- Mr. Philip W. Bonsal, PSA
Mr. Tomlinson came in at my request today. I thanked him for the oral statement which he had made to me on January 30 with regard to the British position on the Dutch-Indonesian controversy over Western New Guinea. I said that I understood the British position to be (1) that the Indonesians have no valid legal claims to the area; (2) that even if they did, the Indonesians are in no position at the present to take on added responsibilities; and (3) that the British could advocate no course of action which the Australians would regard as inimical to their security (Australian opposition on security grounds to Indonesian occupation of Western New Guinea is well known). Mr. Tomlinson concurred in this summary of his statement.
I then said that the US position was as follows: (1) the US has taken no position regarding the validity of the claims advanced either by the Netherlands or by Indonesia to Western New Guinea; (2) while the US has demonstrated in a constructive fashion its concern for the security of Australia, the UK’s statement that it “could never endorse any course of action which the Australians [Page 361] regarded as endangering their security” must be viewed as a unilateral position.
I added that I thought we were in agreement with the British regarding the undesirability of having matters come to a head between Indonesia and the Netherlands over this issue. I stated also that the Secretary had made clear in the course of the UN Assembly last fall in conversations with the Dutch, Indonesian and Australian Prime Ministers our hope that the problem would be settled by the Netherlands and Indonesia, as well as the fact that it was not our policy to intervene on the question.