Reference my telegram 163. [1] I saw Sjahrir last night who handed
me the documents set out in paragraphs 5 and 6 each dated 18th
July and addressed to me and signed by Soekarno as President,
Sjahrir as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Sjarifoeddin as
Minister for Defence.

2. The signing of the documents by Soekarno and Sjarifoeddin
demonstrates Sjahrir's standing with them, as well as the formal
agreement to trial by a British Military Court in Batavia.

3. Sjahrir is now leaving again for the interior intending to stay
away from Batavia for ten days, but when I told him I would be
leaving before this he said he would interrupt his journey and
return to Batavia to see me before I left, and that he would use
every possible endeavour to enable me to leave for Australia with
the suspects [held] in custody [here] [2]

4. This leaves me well pleased with the results of my journey to
Djokjakarta, and from signals I have sighted here I think it is
only a matter of SAC informing the Foreign Office that there is no
military objection to trial by a British Military Court for such a
Court to be set up. I am confident that SAC will on Mansergh's
advice, also MacKereth's, so advise Foreign Office.

5. His Honour judge R. C. Kirby.

On behalf of the Republic of Indonesia we the undersigned hand to
you on behalf of the Commonwealth of Australia the complete files
of original documents compiled officially as records of the
various inquiries and investigations made into the very much
regretted death of the three Australian officers at Tjaringin near
Bogor on April 17th, 1946.

We also on behalf of our Republic repeat the earlier assurances
made to you that the men apparently responsible for the crime will
be handed over for trial by a British tribunal in Djakarta when
such tribunal is ready to try them. You will understand that we
could not possibly agree to the men being tried by a Dutch court
or a court on which Dutch officers sit. We would prefer that
Australians comprise the court and hope that this can be arranged.

The names of the men appear in the file handed to you with this
document and for purposes of complete understanding are:

BOESTAMI, SOEBADRI, SOEPARDI, OEHO and KOESTIMAN.

We wish to make it clear that we are anxious to demonstrate our
complete co-operation with you in your efforts to bring the
perpetrators of the outrage to justice.

On behalf of the Republic of Indonesia.

6. His Honour judge Kirby.

We thank you for the opportunity you have given us of discussing
with you at our capital the speediest method of bringing the
criminals concerned in the murder of the Australian officers to
justice in a manner satisfactory to our respective peoples.

As we have stated to you we accept only a British tribunal in
Jakarta, on which of course no Dutch shall take part, as being the
most satisfactory manner of showing the world that justice has
been done.

You will have been aware of the recent disorders organized by a
small group of irresponsible men and diverted against our
Government. During these disorders the unauthorized release of
those implicated in the murder took place and we are taking the
speediest steps to re-arrest them. We assure you that the release
was effected without our knowledge or authority by elements in our
community who do not appreciate our keen desire to have and
maintain the friendship of the Australian people.