Office of the Historian

179. Memorandum of Conversation0

Washington, June 16, 1961.

SUBJECT

  • West New Guinea

PARTICIPANTS

  • The Under Secretary
  • Ambassador J. H. van Roijen, Netherlands Embassy
  • Mr. Huydecoper, Counselor, Netherlands Embassy
  • Mr. James Bell, SPA
  • Mr. William L. Blue, WE

The Ambassador opened the substantive portion of the conversation by stating that he had been instructed to see the Under Secretary to [Page 404] propose bilateral secret talks looking toward the internationalization of the West New Guinea problem. He said that he had also been instructed to mention two ideas in this connection neither of which was new, i.e., (1) a visiting mission to West New Guinea, and (2) a trusteeship. He added that the details would have to be worked out in both instances. With reference to the second proposal he said that Mr. Luns had often thought of a trusteeship along the lines of the Somali trusteeship, which idea Luns had thrown out to Cleveland when he recently visited The Hague. He said that this would call for a developmental agency, or some international body and allow the Dutch to remain in West New Guinea for a certain period, thus avoiding the vacuum which was left in the Congo. He concluded with a statement to the effect that all thoughts could be discussed if talks were arranged. He expressed the hope that the first round of talks could take place before his departure for the Netherlands on July 7.

Mr. Bowles said that the United States certainly wanted to be helpful in this question and that he was agreeable to the talks, but they must be on a very confidential basis as he did not think the United States should be going about the world trying to solve every problem. He added that consideration had already been given in the Department to various proposals, but that they had not been accepted; he added that we were, therefore, in the process of taking another look. He agreed to speed up the consideration of new proposals in order to have a meeting before the Ambassador’s departure.

The Ambassador stressed that he hoped the group involved in the talks could be kept small (two or three on each side) to which the Under Secretary readily agreed. He also said that he hoped that the Netherlands would have U.S. support should a plan develop from these talks. The Under Secretary replied that if we came up with a plan, it should be shared with various other countries which could carry the ball. He added that he thought tactics could be discussed later, that we must first come up with some proposals for discussion. The Under Secretary closed the meeting in saying that he would be in touch with the Ambassador soon.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 656.9813/6–1661. Confidential. Drafted by Blue and approved in U on July 15.↩