Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, The Far East and Australasia, Volume VI

856d.00/12–1748

Memorandum of Telephone Conversation on December 18 by the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth)¹

December 18, 1948

secret

Upon learning of Hague’s telegram no. 870, December 17, at 12:45 a. m. on December 18, I felt it my clear duty to direct the American Chargé d’Affaires a.i. at The Hague to remind the Netherlands Government, even at the last moment, of the position of this Government, should the Netherlands Government resort to force in Indonesia. I placed a telephone call for Mr. Steere at 1 a. m. from my house, since no operator answered at the Department, but was unable to reach Mr. Steere until 5 a. m.

I reminded Mr. Steere of the great urgency of the situation and of the great importance that the Department attached to a peaceful settlement of the Indonesian problem. I then reminded Mr. Steere that we had received assurances from the Netherlands Embassy within the past twenty-four hours that they would be satisfied and prepared to resume negotiations upon receipt of a statement from the Indonesian Republic to the effect that Mr. Hatta’s last letter to Mr. Cochran was a formal expression of the position of the Republican Government and not merely a personal view of Prime Minister Hatta. I said that the Netherlands Government should understand that in these circumstances it seemed incredible to the Department that the Netherlands would resort to police action. I said the Netherlands Government should also know that the Department of State cannot understand Mr. Stikker’s statement to the effect that Mr. Beel had taken action on his own initiative, nor could the Department understand what emergency had arisen which could justify the course of action upon which the Netherlands seems to have embarked—a self generated emergency was not a bona fide emergency.

I told Mr. Steere that the Netherlands Government should clearly understand that should it resort to force, it must accept the full consequences of that course of action on the part of the United States Government which it had set forth in its aide-mémoire. I told Mr. Steere lastly to remind the Netherlands Government that the situation would inevitably reach the Security Council where our course of action would follow that set forth in our aide-mémoire.

Mr. Steere agreed to try to see Stikker forthwith.

W. [Walton] B[utterworth]

1. Drafted on December 19.