Cablegram K66 BATAVIA, 14 February 1948, 2.53 a.m.
IMMEDIATE SECRET
My telegram K.65. [1]
My immediately following telegram gives Netherlands communique in
fall. [2]
2. The Official Government spokesman speaking as a reliable Dutch
source con-firmed delay had been caused in negotiations by
publication of statement but said it would not be right to say
that Netherlands would not continue negotiations. 3. Vredenburch
will leave in the morning for discussions at The Hague. He will
attend the Cabinet meeting on Monday.
4. A full scale attack is being launched against the Committee.
This may be designed to [drive the] [3] Committee out of Indonesia
but it is more likely to be aimed at prejudicing Committee's case
in Security Council and particularly at preventing any expansion
of the Committee's functions.
1 Document 63.
2 Dispatched on 14 February, Cablegram K67 conveyed the text of a
communique issued by the NEI Government Information Service on 13
February. The communique made several critical points about the
statements reported to have been made by the Committee of Good
offices in its New York press conference on 12 February. The
communique argued that the Committee was undermining the
foundation of good offices, the confidence of either or both
panics; that the Committee would exceed its commission by
attempting to contact representatives of territories in the NEI
other than Java, Sumatra and Madura; that the Committee was
seeking to extend its commission until the formation of the USI;
and that the Netherlands considered improper the Committee's
reported suggestion that nothing but a plebiscite outside Java and
Sumatra could decide whether governments in those territories were
anything more than 'puppet Governments'.
3 The words in square brackets have been inserted from a copy on
file AA:A4357/2, 48/254, ii.
[AA:A1838, 403/3/1/1, xv]
