516 Mr John Curtin, Prime Minister, to Mr A. T. Stirling, External Affairs Officer in London

Cablegram 202 CANBERRA, 3 June 1942

SECRET

For Bruce [1] from Curtin.

Your 218. [2]

Desire you inform United Kingdom Government that we appreciate
step which it has taken in regard to Bowden and Ross. We have to
say that the exclusion of Bowden and Ross is not acceptable. There
are twenty-five Japanese officials in Australia and limiting the
exchange of these to only eight Australians is utterly
unjustified. We press for Ross and Bowden and do not agree
otherwise.

1 High Commissioner in the United Kingdom.

2 Dispatched 2 June. On file AA:A981, Consuls 13, i. It reported
that the Japanese Govt had requested that one or two officials of
their Foreign Ministry should be permitted to travel on the
evacuation ships to Loureco Marques so that they could proceed to
Japanese missions in Europe. The U.K. Govt proposed to use this
request as a quid pro quo for the inclusion of Bowden (see
Document 333, note 1) and Ross (see Document 337, note 5) in the
evacuation scheme. News of Bowden's death in February was not
received in Australia until the end of the war.

[AA:A981, CONSULS 13, i]

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516 Mr John Curtin, Prime Minister, to Mr A. T. Stirling, External Affairs Officer in London