Why Not Timor, Too?

If the Indonesians can argue that they are entitled to West New Guinea, as part of Indo-\ nesia, why do they consistently j ignore Eastern Timor, which is right in the middle of Indonesia —and is a Portuguese Territory?

Timor is a well-wooded, mountainous island, 300 miles long by an average of 50 miles wide. It is divided almost\ equally between Indonesian Timor, in the west, and Portuguese Timor, in the east, and there are about 400,000 people in each half.

Incidentally, Portuguese Timor is much better governed and developed, now, than the Indo nesian half, and the people there most probably would resist a take-over by Indonesia.

The 800,000 or more people in Timor are of the Indo- Malayan types — lndonesians, in other words—in contrast with the West New Guinea people, who mostly are much more primitive, and classified as Papuans (Melanesians).

If Indonesia has been inspired by India's seizure of Goa (which after all is a bit of India, in habited by Indians), why does it ignore Eastern Timor (which is a bit of Indonesia inhabited by Indonesians) and try instead to grab Western New Guinea, which is not a part of Indonesia, and is inhabited by Melanesians? (They have thought about Timor, of course, as “PIM” re ported in August, p. 71.)