Portuguese Timor. Your telegram No. 197 [1] and your telegram No.

201. [2]

I conveyed your views to the Far Eastern Department [3] whose
comment is as follows:

We welcome the proposal of the Commonwealth Government to send
someone to Timor since, as you know, we feel that it is urgent
that somebody should be able to report to us authoritatively on
the local situation and [should] [4] be in a position to keep an
eye on Japanese activities. There is also the consideration that
if possible we should have someone at Dilli who can represent, in
an official way, the interests of the Commonwealth Government and
the British interests in general. This latter consideration is of
course a strong argument in favour of sending someone with
official status.

There are, however, certain difficulties about the present
proposal of the Commonwealth Government. In the first place it
would be necessary to approach the Portuguese Government in order
to obtain recognition of representative's official capacity. It is
unlikely in our opinion that the Portuguese Government would
accept an official who did not fall into one of the recognised
categories such as Consul or Trade Commissioner. Even if they were
eventually persuaded to agree to recognise some other official
designation of Australian representative, there can be no doubt
that, apart from the delay, which would be undesirable, Portugal
would not give the Commonwealth representative higher status than
Consul. This would have the disadvantage that if a Japanese Consul
were appointed he would be regarded senior to the Commonwealth
representative and probably entitled to greater facilities.

Moreover, there is a definite distinction between the position in
Timor and that in New Caledonia. The latter territory is under
Free French control and our position vis a vis the Free French
movement is of course a very special one. In Portuguese territory
we cannot expect to receive the same facilities.

For all these reasons we would submit for the consideration of the
Commonwealth Government the desirability of their representative
either being given Consular status or going to Timor in an
entirely unofficial capacity for a limited period. From our point
of view the former is preferable but if the Commonwealth
Government prefer the latter, question of opening of a Consulate
would still remain to be solved and would have to be pursued
independently.

We should perhaps add that as a permanent appointment, a
representative without recognised official status could achieve
very little with the local authorities.

STIRLING