Dutch New Guinea

It’S Crisis Time For

From a Special Correspondent in Canberra

The next few weeks could be crisis time for Netherlands New Guinea. If Indonesian huffing and puffing is to come to a climax, if the increasingly warlike statements of Indonesian leaders are meaningful, then March could be their chosen hour.

BECAUSE early in April the Indo ) nesians will lose the propaganda initiative.

On April 5 the Netherlands New iinea Council will sit for the first ne, and the following fortnight ere will be the inaugural meeting the enlarged Papua-New Guinea igislative Council, which has ;cted native members for the first ne.

One of the Netherlands New finea Council’s first tasks will be advise on how the policy of self termination should be put into ect.

There seems no doubt that the tuncil will report in favour of self termination; all eight political rties are committed to such a licy.

Ihe main questions to be decided e how and when.

Speed is the Question

Both these points hinge largely the speed with which the Dutch n train sufficient natives to take er the task of administration.

Latest official figures show that ere were fewer than 2,000 Papuan iployees in the Administration, linly in the lower grades, at the d of 1959.

But 34 of the 69 administrative itricts were under Papuan heads, th administrative control over inhabitants, irrespective of tionality. 3ome Dutch authorities fear that e Indonesians may be tempted to ike some spectacular move in an ort to counter the impetus toward f-government given by the nation of the New Guinea Council, rhe Dutch, however, may them ves make a spectacular move— ;h as internationalisation, rhe Dutch point to the mounting Lligerence of statements by Indo sian leaders. These statements dude; • “The struggle will be deter ned in West New Guinea itself.” — dence Minister General A. H. isution, August, 1960. • “The problem is a military one.” 3en. Nasution, October. • “It will be difficult for Indo sia to guarantee there will not be meeting of armed forces.” —The reign Minister, Dr. Subandrio, (cember. • “A situation endangering world ace.”—The Chairman of the Indo

nesian Nationalist Party, Dr. Ali Sastroamidjojo, December. • “No one can hold Indonesia re sponsible if it is obliged to adopt stronger measures in the face of the continuing Dutch policy of force.”— Indonesian Ambassador to U.S., De cember. • “The Indonesian people are determined to settle the issue within little time in the beginning of the New Year. Dutch forces may have

to face Indonesian forces.”—Dr Subandrio, December. • “Military conflict might break out at any moment. Invasion in New Guinea is imminent.”—lndo nesian Military Attache, Bonn, Jan uary.

Nearer home, a man who has worked unstintingly for better Aus tralian-Indonesian relations, the re tiring Indonesian Ambassador to Australia, Dr. A. Y. Helmi, said on his departure from Canberra at the end of February that he believed Indonesia’s friendly relations with Australia would be unaffected by West New Guinea.

Dr. Helmi said that Australia was a third party in the dispute and “was not directly concerned”.

No Military Alliance

A newspaper report which eman ated from Hongkong in February of an undercover military alliance between Australia and the Nether lands in the event of Indonesian aggression against West New Guinea, is incorrect.

If Indonesia were to attempt to move into West New Guinea it would be reasonable to assume that Australia would quickly strengthen her own very light forces in Papua- New Guinea.

But open military support to the west of the border would be a very different matter.

The Dutch appear to be recon ciled to this.

There is official Dutch recognition of these basic facts of life: • Dutch interest in Australia’s Near North is temporary. • The Dutch have declared their intention of granting self-determin ation to the West New Guinea people as soon as they are able to accept it. • When that happens, the Dutch

Throughout Netherlands New Guinea and Papua-New Guinea in February the native people were voting. In NNG they were hold ing the second and final stage of the elections to the first New Guinea Council. In P-NG they were selecting voting representatives for the election on March 18. Here in Port Moresby, a lone woman candidate Stephanie Maino, an assistant welfare officer with the Administration, looks forlorn as she awaits votes. She was not selected.

Photo: K. Vellacott-Jones

will no longer have any interest whatever with South-East Asia and the Pacific. • The Dutch recognise—ruefully —that they cannot expect military support from Australia, which, they admit, must seek to remain on good terms with the country which will be its nearest neighbour for all time, Indonesia, Another report which got some s P?ce in Australia in February, but which ls f not correct, is a New York report of an angry clash in Washmgton between Prl m e Minister Menzies and President Kennedy over Netherlands New Guinea. . , . , ..

The American and Australian viewpoints on West New Guinea are obviously not the same, but that does not make for an “angry clash”.

Mr. Menzies is believed to have

taken the opportunity during his brief Washington talks to explain Australia’s special interests in the area > and to have recalled that much Australian and American blood was spilled in its defence, President Kennedy is understood to have put the view that the United States, with its long history of anti colonialism, had to refrain from voting on the issue in the UN.

There was nothing new in this. u.S. attitude is that it cannot afford to embroil itself in the area by se eming to espouse what much 0 f the world believes to be Dutch “colonialism” „,,' , A , Such a stand leaves America s re iations with Australia on the Netherlands New Guinea question much the same as Australia’s pre sent o n-the-fence attitude to the Dutch.

P-NG ELECTIONS: The P-NG Director of Native Affairs, Mr. J. K. McCarthy, (centre, top picture) congratulates four successful voting representatives who were elected in the Port Moresby area in February to help vote in the final P-NG elections on March 18. Lower picture, a P-NG official photo, shows the voters lined up for the ballot.