1. On 28th May Van Mook asked the United Kingdom Consul-General to
see him. After saying rather plaintively that reports had
apparently been going to various governments virtually to the
effect that the Dutch were contemplating military action here, he
told him of the delivery of the note to the Indonesians, of which
he gave him a copy in Dutch. [1]

2. He said that if the Republic did not accept, there were
apparently only two alternatives, either withdrawal by the Dutch
or the use of force, and added that the former was most unlikely.

The decision however would be made in Holland, not here.

3. Subsequently he sent the Consul-General an unsigned memorandum,
of which the text is given in my immediately following telegram.

[2] This memo, when read with the note itself, illuminates the
Dutch approach.

4. When I saw Sjahrir yesterday he was very preoccupied and rather
disinclined to talk. He thought the proposals for the interim
federal government plan were vague, though the economic proposals
were concrete. Beel and Jonkman had spoken to him along those
lines. He thought there was a danger of the Dutch military people
getting out of hand and spoke of the possibility of Dutch military
action in East Java. On the political side he said that the Dutch
proposals marked a 'step back' for the Republic they proposed in
effect that the Republic should take a parallel position to East
Indonesia, i.e. with the Dutch in control. This would mean Dutch
troops going to the interior, which the Republic 'could not have'.