469 Department of External Affairs to Eaton and Officer

Cablegrams 395, 164 CANBERRA, 16 December 1947

IMMEDIATE

Please convey earnest invitation from Acting Prime Minister and
Minister External Affairs [1] to Prime Minister of the Netherlands
to visit Australia. We consider his visit would do much not only
to better Netherlands-Australian relations but also in the
ultimate solution of the problems of N.E.I.

For Hague. Please follow up this invitation in any way possible.

[2]

1 Chifley left Sydney by air on 14 December for a holiday in New
Zealand. Evatt served as Acting Prime Minister until Chifley
returned to Australia on 1 January 1948.

2 Officer replied on 17 December that Van Boetzelaer agreed that
it would be most desirable for Beel to visit Australia, but the
Minister for Foreign Affairs feared that an urgent need for the
Prime Minister's early return to Holland could preclude such a
visit.

[AA:A1838/283, 403/3/1/1, xiii]

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469 Department of External Affairs to Eaton and Officer