During his recent visit to Djakarta Mr. Dulles invited President Sukarno of Indonesia to visit the United States. The dates suggested were May 16 to 19 in Washington, with perhaps a further week for travel in the United States. We do not yet know officially that President Sukarno has accepted the invitation, but it would appear from press reports that he has.

2. You will recall that when you were in Djakarta in March, 1954 you made some casual reference to the possibility of President Sukarno visiting Canada. Later it was agreed that we would not extend a direct invitation unless and until the United States Government invited him to Washington. We therefore asked the United States authorities to inform us in advance of their plans in this regard, and it was as a result of this request that they informed us of the invitation extended recently by Mr. Dulles.

3. You may consider, therefore, that we should now invite him to spend a few days in Canada. Probably two days in Ottawa would be sufficient, although if he wished to spend more time in Canada arrangements might be made for him to pay short visits to other parts of the country. One possibility might be Arvida (Aluminium, Ltd. has bauxite interests in Indonesia); Niagara Falls might be another. As Dr. Sukarno is a Head of State, it would be appropriate for the Governor General to be his host in Ottawa.

4. Such a visit would, of course, repay Indonesia's hospitality to you and we might anticipate more positive advantages as well. There is no doubt that the good feeling engendered by such a visit would facilitate the work of our Ambassador in Indonesia. More important, if President Sukarno gains a favourable impression of North America, it would probably be a good influence on him. As you know, he is an ultra-nationalist, inclined to demagoguery, but with a wide personal influence in Indonesia. Anti-western elements there have been at pains to win his favour. He is no doubt the more susceptible to anti-western arguments because he has never visited a western country, and seems to have only a most imperfect understanding of western political and economic motives. For example, there is some risk at the present time that his personal influence, which is almost decisive in Indonesian politics, will be thrown in the direction of a Popular Front government with communist participation. The State Department is hopeful that if Dr. Sukarno comes to the United States some of his misapprehensions can be corrected. I agree that the possibility of influencing him to look with more favour on the West is an important consideration to be kept in mind, and that if he came to Canada, we should therefore ensure that there would be some time for political discussion and an opportunity for him to visit other parts of the country. In short, we might think in terms of a visit which would be something more than a strictly formal state occasion.

5. Assuming that President Sukarno accepts the United States invitation, do you agree that we might also invite him to visit Canada? From our present information it appears that his tour of the United States will end on May 26 or 27, in which case it could probably be arranged that he would arrive in Ottawa on Monday, May 28. I understand that the Governor General will be in Ottawa on that day and the day following, although he will also have as his guests at Government House Lord Home, Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, and Lady Home. Subject to your approval of the invitation, we would, of course, consult the Governor General as soon as he could be reached in the Far North, and if the conflict of visits would be likely to create embarrassment, it might be possible to make some adjustment of timetables in consultation with the staff at Government House.¹²⁴

L.B. PEARSON