2. I have ascertained that the Minister for Overseas Territories,
Mr Jonkman, in an 'aside' to the Second Chamber some weeks ago,
announced that the question of immigration to New Guinea was under
close observation. He stated that emigrants to New Guinea would
probably come from three sources:-

a) 100,000 Indo-Europeans who have become displaced in NEI
b) 30 or 40 thousand Dutch farmers
c) Dutch ex-Servicemen and many young people in search of
adventure.

This 'aside' of the Minister was not reported by the press and was
completely missed or ignored by the official information services.

I still think that official plans, if such exist, are very
tentative and that the main concern of the Government at the
moment is what form the future status of New Guinea will take.

3. But some exploratory work is being done for I hear that four
experts have arrived already in BIAK with a view to making a
detailed research as regards the possibility of settling the Dutch
Eurasians there. They, it is reported, wish to institute their own
Government under the Dutch crown.

4. I hear also that active plans for the exploration of New Guinea
have been made by the Netherlands New Guinea Exploration Committee
consisting-apart from the representatives of Dutch scientific
institutions-of representatives of Royal Dutch Shell Company, the
Netherlands Trading Society, the Billiton Tin Company and
Unilever. Apparently an expedition will be sent shortly for two
years to inspect the area on the tableland in Central New Guinea,
and this expedition will be followed by others.

5. Some light is shed on the situation by a lecture delivered by
Dr. Klein on 6th February to the 'Allied Circle'. Dr. Klein is not
an official of the Dutch Government but he is acknowledged as a
great expert on Dutch New Guinea. The subject of Dr. Klein's
lecture was co-operation between Dutch and Australian New Guinea,
and he stressed that in the past there had indeed been very
little. Contributing causes of this were:-

a) the distances involved
b) general absence of communications
c) the wildness of the country and the absence of understanding of
the need for co-operation on the higher Dutch and Australian
Governmental levels.

6. Dr. Klein said that plans for the development of Dutch New
Guinea were still only in a tentative form but he was of the
opinion that the Netherlands Government favoured the creation of a
dependent territory of New Guinea initially under the control of
the Crown. The Republican efforts to gain control of New Guinea
should be resisted not for political reasons, but because of the
inexperience of the Indonesians in colonial affairs; he likened
Indonesia to a youth of 16 and New Guinea to a child of two. Dr.

Klein complained that the interest of the Netherlands Government
in New Guinea had been meagre and he gave as an example that the
New Guinea administration had asked for ten soil experts to make
preliminary surveys prior to European colonisation and that
Batavia had only seen fit to send two.

7. Dr. Klein said that the best areas of development were the
extreme north of the peninsula near the Cape of Good Hope where
oil deposits had been found and also the tableland south of
Hollandia and in the vicinity of the border of Australian
territory. There were two areas here suitable for colonisation by
European settlers, one at 1,500 metres and the other at 2,000
metres above sea level. Here in his opinion many kinds of tropical
produce could be grown in conditions not unsuitable to white men.

The development of this area however would depend largely on the
building of communications through the rugged country to the
coast-a distance of over 100 kilometres through very different
terrain. A possible solution would be to send goods just over the
border into Australian territory where they could be taken to the
coast by barges down the Sepik river. This solution would entail a
far greater degree of co-operation with the Australian authorities
than at present existed.

8. Dr. Klein confirmed that there were Dutch political prisoners
in New Guinea at present working on the dumps of war materials
left there by the Allied forces. He also mentioned that there were
plans for the migration of a large number of Indo-Europeans to New
Guinea from Java and the other islands of the N.E.I. When
questioned, he said that the New Foundation to control migration
to New Guinea (vide my Departmental Despatch 5/48) was to come
under the Stichting Landverhuizing Nederland. Mr Hartland however.

has denied this. I shall endeavour to obtain further information
on this subject.

[AA:A4231/2, 1948 THE HAGUE]

1 Officer's Departmental Dispatch of 4 February, not published in
this volume, was in fact Hag 8/48.