It would help us and may be a wise precaution if we could be kept
informed of any important discussions on Indonesia which the
department has with Bedi, two of whose telegrams Menon has shown
me this week.

Bedi's latest telegram attributes to the Australian Government the
view that the Asian conference should be founded on an ECAFE basis
of representation [1], that it should not take in countries
(presumably Arabic) west of Iran and that since China was invited
to the Delhi meeting similar invitations should have been sent to
the U.K. and U.S., whose dignity might be offended by exclusion.

This telegram gave rise to Bajpai's letter reported in my telegram
14. [2] Bedi also said that you were querying whether Australia
was invited as a full participant which provided Menon with the
opportunity of remarking to us that Australia was so invited.

I think that I should also report that when I notified Bajpai
yesterday of Australian attend-ance he hinted that since the
conference was now not scheduled to begin until January 20th it
might be still possible for Dr. Evatt to attend. He was probably
thinking of the Minister as a draw-card quite apart from any other
influence which he might have exercised. He was content when I
reminded him that the Australian representative would be an
official occupying a position no less important than his own which
is very considerable.

Your telegrams 2 and 8 [3] have just been received and are being
attended to.