This afternoon Saturday Van Hoogstraten informed Forsyth that he
had received instructions from The Hague not to agree on message
or conditions concerning the ban until after the Trades Union
Conference at Malang and until after details of the allocation of
goods had been completed.

2. You will have seen the press reports on Campbell's statement at
Malang on Friday that Australian Trade Unions had decided not to
lift the ban but on the contrary plans for a world wide ban on
Dutch shipping are being formulated by the Australian Unions. [1]

3. Forsyth twice reminded Van Hoogstraten that Trade Union
settlement of the ban question would be most unfortunate from the
Australian Government standpoint but Van Hoogstraten said he had
no option under the instructions above, and could not not take any
further action until the Malang Conference ended.

4. Later Gani said there had been no progress in the question of
agreement concerning the ban and that it would be taken up again
on Monday. He did not appear to know of Van Hoogstraten's new
position.

5. We have arranged to see Gani tomorrow and had already after
receiving the news in paragraph two above asked for an interview
with Sjahrir which we expect will take place tonight.