Your cablegram 130 of 28th April, participation of Portugal in
operations for recapture of Portuguese Timor. [1]

1. The Government's Service advisers have made the following
observations:-

(a) The war effort is still in a state of disequilibrium and this
disequilibrium would be further increased by the acceptance of
additional commitments such as the one under consideration.

(b) At the present time, the resources of Australia are strained
to such an extent that the greatest difficulty is being
experienced in maintaining the strengths of the Australian
Services and providing their requirements.

(c) The requirements of the Royal Navy are increasing, and it will
be a difficult matter to provide the further assistance that will
be sought.

(d) Any commitment accepted for the Portuguese should not be
allowed to prejudice in any way the maintenance of the strengths
of the Australian forces or the meeting of the requirements of the
Australian forces or the Royal Navy. [2]

2. The Government's policy on Allied commitments as stated to
Parliament by the Acting Prime Minister is:

'It has been made clear from the start that there are considerable
limitations on Australia's capacity to accept additional
commitments for the maintenance of forces from Australian sources
of manpower and materials. It is a vital importance to other
Governments that we should not make promises which we cannot
fulfil. It is of equal importance to the Commonwealth that it
should not undertake commitments which are beyond the capacity of
its resources to provide.

It is the duty of the Production Executive to consider Allied
proposals in relation to other aspects of the war effort in order
to assess the capacity to provide them. To guard against the
neutralisation of the measures being taken to establish
equilibrium in the war effort the Production Executive has been
requested to fix ceilings for the Allied commitments that can be
undertaken.' [3]

3. The Government has given full consideration to the proposal
that 4,000 Portuguese troops should be received, trained and
maintained in Australia to participate in the liberation of Timor,
but it is averse to undertaking a further commitment to provide
requirements for this force, having regard to existing commitments
on Australian resources.