The Americans now appear to accept an analysis of the Dutch policy
on the lines of my telegram K.117. [1]

2. The Committee intends to forward the Republic's protest against
the BANDUNG Conference along with its own comments and comments of
the Netherlands by the end of this week. [2] The Committee's
stronger attitude (see paragraph 5 my telegram K.120 [3]) seems to
have had effect. Van Mook in his opening speech at Bandung said
that the Conference was not a constituent assembly and described
it as a consultative body-quite a marked difference from earlier
public statements.

3. The Americans with the State Department's backing accept the
need for the Committee to take a strong initiative as quickly as
possible. They have accepted as a basis my revised proposals for a
political settlement and a detailed scheme for elections to the
constituent assembly. We hope to have a plan accepted by Committee
so that a comprehensive plan or a series of leading questions can
be presented formally to the parties next week.

4. The Committee's activities in the next month will be crucial.

The Dutch endeavour to keep things as quiet as possible during
this period and are unlikely to force a breakdown of talks before
the elections are held in Holland.

5. Military Situation. On present information Dutch military
strength is 120,000 plus or minus 20,000 with paratroops and
amphibious supporting elements. Offensive units have regrouped and
would be able to commence military operations at short notice. The
Americans now realise the possibility of another police action and
it is intended that military observers of all nations should
obtain as much data of Dutch military activities as possible. Our
own report based on the investigations our own observers initiated
three weeks ago should be ready in a few days.

6. Neher and Vredenburch are to see Hatta tomorrow not as members
of a delegation but as representatives of the Netherlands
Government.