The latest telegram from Canberra (No.31 [1]) is a little
surprising, not to say puzzling, since the previous message (No.

29 [2]) was entirely concerned with the United States resolution
[3] for the Security Council, which our Government felt was being
sabotaged, but by the time telegram 29 reached us, the American
resolution had already been discussed in the Security Council and,
according to the press reports we have, had been adopted without
substantial change. Canada supported it.

The main provisions of the Security Council resolution were as
follows:-

(1) It called on the Dutch to release the Indonesian Republican
leaders and re-establish the Republican Government.

(2) It created a United Nations Indonesian Commission to supervise
elections for a United States of Indonesia (the Commission
comprises Australia, Belgium and the United States).

(3) It instructed the Indonesian Commission to recommend
withdrawal of Dutch troops from Republican territory as it saw fit
and to assist in restoring Republican administration.

(4) It recommended that elections be held and sovereignty
transferred by the Dutch to the Republic by 1st July, 1950.

This resolution appears to differ from the wishes of the Delhi
Conference [4] and those of Australia in only one important point:

it does not demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of
Dutch troops.

It was no doubt because the Security Council had already acted on
the American resolution, and because the Council's decision might
have appeared to go a considerable way to meet the complaint
expressed in telegram 29 that Mr. Pearson was not inclined to
offer any comment on the latter.

The main point seems to be that Canberra's telegram No. 29 arrived
here after the Security Council had completed its discussion. The
matter in it was, therefore, already rather academic when it
reached Mr. Pearson and it is difficult to see what reply he could
possibly give now.