For some time now Dutch women and children ex-internees have been
beseeching me to gain asylum for them for some months in
Australia. Their condition is pitiful. This morning the Combined
Red Cross Authorities have made an appeal in the press to support
a campaign to find a place outside Java to which these women might
be sent to recuperate. This morning the Catholic Bishop of Batavia
[1] called on me to make a special appeal to Australia emphasizing
that Australia was particularly attractive because it is close and
because of its climate and political stability.

I venture to suggest that if Australian leaders were to visit
these camps they would be so deeply moved that they would be
prepared to make great sacrifices to rescue as many of these
people as possible. I understand that we have undertaken to accept
a maximum of 10,000 on condition that the Dutch provide
accommodation and that this condition effectively limits the
number to 6,000. I feel this to be a humanitarian appeal of the
most urgent and genuine kind. I believe that a very generous
Australian gesture would bring us great goodwill and have no
political implications. There are approximately 190,000 Dutch and
Eurasian men, women and children who want temporary asylum. I
would respectfully venture to suggest that we might offer to take
50,000 instead of 10,000. But if action is to be effective it must
be immediate. [2]

I await very eagerly any advice about the project of sending food
and supply ships from Australia here. [3]