500.A4/72
The Secretary of State to the Minister in the Netherlands (Phillips)
Sir: Referring to Mr. Armour’s Despatch No. 632, July 13, 1921,66 and to the personal conversation which you had with the Secretary concerning the participation of The Netherlands in the forthcoming Conference on Limitation of Armament by reason of Dutch colonial possessions in the Pacific, you are informed that the Dutch Chargé d’Affaires67 and Dr. Hubrecht68 have conversed with several officers [Page 55] of the Department on this subject, and presumably have transmitted these conversations to The Netherlands Foreign Office.
Dr. Hubrecht, on July 11, stated that he had come to the Department to make an informal and personal inquiry as to whether The Netherlands had been invited to participate in the Conference on Far Eastern Affairs, He was told that no steps had been taken toward inviting Holland, and he therefore unofficially presented certain considerations showing the interest which The Netherlands would have in such a Conference. He said that, if the Conference was to be restricted to matters concerning China, there might be reason for excluding Holland, whose interests were relatively small, but that if the Conference should consider Far Eastern and Pacific questions in their broader aspects, with particular reference to economic problems, it would seem that Holland should be entitled to participate by reason of her large possessions in the East Indies, with a population of fifty millions.
He cited the Djambi oil question69 as an instance of the sort of economic question which he conceived it would be to the interest of this Government to make one of the subjects of the Conference. He referred also to the case of Yap and the cables centering there, and intimated that if the American Government should not take the initiative in securing the participation of Holland, it might be expected that some other Nation would do so. It was not clear to the officer of the Department with whom he was talking whether this reference he had in mind was to Great Britain or Japan.
Dr. Hubrecht said further that failure to participate in the Conference might easily lead to serious consequences for The Netherlands, by reason of the effect upon the prestige of the mother country among the natives of the Dutch East Indies who, he said, were reconciled to Dutch control but were, nevertheless, conscious of the new political movements stirring among the races of Asia. He felt that Dutch prestige might be compromised in their eyes if the Powers were to ignore The Netherlands as a power in the Pacific.
Dr. Hubrecht was told that no final decision had been made about participation in the Conference, but that it had seemed desirable to begin the preliminary discussion of the matter with the smallest number possible, leaving it to future developments to determine how extensive the scope of its deliberations should be and whether other Powers would be invited to join, and that in the meantime it would probably be impossible to give any definite indication of the intention of this Government to request Dutch participation.
Two days later, the Chargé dAffaires called on the Assistant Secretary and repeated that his Government was extremely interested [Page 56] in the Conference. He also repeated that he had no instructions to make inquiries, but that he had received a cable informing him that the Dutch Foreign Minister had already told Mr. Armour of the interest of the Dutch Government and of the fact that the Dutch Government would be glad to have an opportunity to express its views and ideas with regard to the Pacific situation.
Mr. Dearing70 told Mr. de Beaufort that anything definite the Department had to say should come from the Secretary, and Mr. de Beaufort promised to speak to the Secretary on the next Diplomatic day. At that time, the Secretary explained to Mr. de Beaufort the attitude of this Government in the matter, much as he explained it to you in your personal interview with him.
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