In Australian NG?
p. 23 · Read in the full issue
Will They Sing Indonesian Anthems In Australian NG?
One of the most interesting letters of the month, in view of the West New Guinea situation, was from Mr. Stuart Bruce, of California , who recently spent some months in the Netherlands territory, and a few weeks in Aus tralia 9 s. He writes: “In September . 1961, / was with a Dutch patrol for some weeks, We left from Oebroeb, which is about 90 miles SSE of Hollandia, and covered about 80 land miles. Except for the first and last days of patrolling, we spent the entire time in Australian New Guinea.
“While in there we found a number of villages flying the Dutch flag, a number of natives wearing Dutch badges and some of the school children were taught to sing the Dutch national anthem! I was told Australian patrols rarely, if ever, go in there and that the natives of the area consider the Dutch patrol-officer as the official representative of government. There is no question of the location of the border in this matter and the Dutch are well aware that they are in Aus tralian Territory. I was amused and interested to have this experi ence in what must be a unique situation in international relations —the administration of a portion
of one countiy by another foreign power and nobody could care less”
Mr. Bruce is right: no one has cared much—up to date. Every one knows that there is inter mingling of natives on both sides of the border and as “PIM” pointed out in a commentary in October, it has gone even further than that with a drift from south east NNG. It is known that about 150 West New Guinea natives are regularly employed in Port Moresby—and no one has cared.
But we can ask again as we asked in October—what happens when the Indonesians have moved in? Because natives on our side of the border think they are Dutch, it isn’t too hard to image President Soekarno claiming them for himself and engineering border incidents.
The current crisis has already thrown up its native West New Guinea quislings and no imagin ation at all is necessary to see the possible consequence of the present Australian “laissez faire” attitude to over-the-border drifts.
We could even live to see the day when President Soekarno moves his war machine in on Port Moresby in order to “liberate” the West New Guineans living there.