Historical documents
FUTURE OF DUTCH NEW GUINEA
According to press reports, Indonesian Republican leaders appear
to be pressing for the inclusion of Dutch New Guinea in the State
of Eastern Indonesia and/or the United States of Indonesia [1],
doubtless with the intention of incorporating Dutch New Guinea in
the territory of an autonomous Indonesian state enjoying
recognition of its de jure sovereignty.
2. The population of Dutch New Guinea numbers some 400,000 persons
[2], almost exclusively of Papuan or Melanesian stock. These
natives have only recently come under European influences.
Indonesians in Dutch New Guinea have been in the main brought to
the island by the Dutch and would probably number [not] [3] more
than a few hundred at the outside.
3. Dutch New Guinea is not well developed economically but its
potentialities are great. It is already a source of oil.
4. Dutch New Guinea occupies a position of great strategic and
tactical importance, guarding as it does the Western approaches to
Torres Strait and the Northern approaches to Darwin. Its western
and northern coasts particularly, contain a number of first-class
harbours and airfield sites. During the recent war the harbour of
Hollandia handled, to take but one example, a much greater tonnage
of merchant shipping in a month or two than all Australian ports
would normally handle in the course of a year.
5. It appears that on the following grounds
(a) native welfare,
(b) economic development, and
(c) security;
Australia should take the line (1) that Dutch New Guinea should
not become subject to the control of any Asiatic authority, and
(2) that the Dutch might be informed that Australia desires Dutch
New Guinea to remain a colonial possession of the Netherlands, and
would expect the Netherlands to give Australia certain positive
assurances regarding native welfare, economic development and
military facilities, in Dutch New Guinea.
[6]. It may be necessary for the Department to consult in this