INDONESIA

Reference my telegram 3. [1]

1. United Kingdom Office Colombo have not yet received the views
of their Government but expect advice shortly. They hold the
opinion with which we agree that the Ceylon Government are playing
for time and will consider most carefully before taking decision
and they feel also that Ceylon will be influenced by the United
Kingdom Government's view.

2. On the other hand 'Daily News' editorial supports the idea of
the Conference and assumes that Ceylon will accept Nehru's
invitation and all press opinion here is strong in the
denunciation of the 'naked and unabashed aggression by the Dutch
in Indonesia' and accuse the Western Democracies of being 'content
to pay lip service to the cause of freedom in the East'. This
seems NOT to include Australia as the editorial mentioned above
said 'a number of Asian countries including Australia, Egypt and
China are reported to have accepted the invitation'.