Nng's Status
p. 23 · Read in the full issue
No Change In
The Netherlands caused some con fusion among its friends in early Sep tember when it announced that it “favoured placing Netherlands New Guinea under international super vision” through the UN. This ap peared to contradict NNG’s 10-year plan towards self-government.
The statement was first made in The Hague, reportedly by the Prime Minister, and seemingly was confirmed by the Dutch Foreign Minister, Mr. Luns, just before he left for New York. The suggestion was that a UN commission of Australian, Indian and US repre sentative be formed as an advisory body to the Dutch administration.
Nevertheless, in Sydney on September 10, the Netherlands’ new Ambassador to Australia, Dr. J. G. de Beus, denied that any such scheme was in the air.
“The Press has somehow mixed it up,” he said. “There have been no changes.
We still have a 10-year programme to build up NNG towards self government. Naturally we will still keep in close contact with the UN.”
A day later, an official statement was released from The Hague saying exactly the same thing.