When the Dutch recognized Indonesia’s independence (in November 1949), the status of Irian, which both countries claimed, would be settled at a conference to be held within a year.

In the Indonesian’s atlas the western part of New Guinea is called Irian. No one is quite sure what the word signifies. One theory is that it means nothing, another that it means “warm land.” It is, indeed, a torrid jungle and mountain wilderness as big as California. Sparsely inhabited…