WELLINGTON, 16 February 1944

I have the honour to refer to the American note [1] delivered to
the Governments of Australia and New Zealand concerning the
proposal contained in the Australian - New Zealand Agreement that
a conference should be called of representatives of governments
with interests in the Southwest and South Pacific areas.

2. From conversations with the Prime Minister, it is apparent that
Mr. Fraser while recognising the cold and unsympathetic tone of
the American note, has welcomed it as a sign at least that the
Australian - New Zealand Agreement has caused some attention to be
paid to the problems of this region and to the position of our two
countries. His opinion is that it is to the advantage of Australia
and New Zealand to have forced their views under the notice of the
big powers even though those views have not met whole-hearted
approval. 3. To the American diplomatic representatives here, the
New Zealand officials have expressed the view that they cannot
understand why America, which, together with the other great
powers, has itself enunciated principles concerning the post-war
world, should view with such a lack of enthusiasm a similar
meeting and expression of opinion by two other members of the
United Nations. If the great powers were unwilling to further
define their post-war objectives, there was no reason, it was
pointed out, why this should not be clone by other nations.

4. It appears from this distance that the American reactions to
the Agreement were based on reports received from Canberra both
from press and diplomatic sources. There seems to have been very
little concrete and detailed criticism of the various points
included in the Agreement except of Article 34, with its plan for
a further international conference in Australia.

5. It is interesting to note that the United States Charge
d'Affaires [2] here has apparently kept the Netherlands Consul-
General very fully informed of their attitude towards the
Agreement and proposed conference, and has even shown him copies
of despatches from the American Minister in Canberra. Whether this
is indicative of a definite American policy to discourage the
Netherlands' Government from accepting an invitation to talks in
Australia I do not know, but I have the impression that the
American Legation has gone out of its way to keep their views
before the Netherlands' representatives here.

6. The New Zealand Government informed you of their intention of
notifying the United Kingdom Government High Commissioner in
Wellington of the correspondence with the American State
Department concerning the proposed conference. I am not aware
whether you have been in touch with the United Kingdom High
Commissioner in Canberra concerning this matter but in Wellington
Sir Harry Batterbee has shown considerable interest, not only in
the Agreement but in the proposed conference. The views of the
United Kingdom Government were, of course, conveyed to you in
telegram No. 45 from the Dominion Affairs of 12th February [3],
and I should gauge that the New Zealand Government, while
recognising the somewhat cold reactions of the United Kingdom
Government to the idea of a conference in Australia, would accept
the conclusion reached in paragraph 12 of that telegram that the
issue of invitations should be deferred until after the meeting of
British Commonwealth Prime Ministers in London. They assume also
that without American agreement the holding of the conference
would be impracticable.

TOM D'ALTON