The most enthusiastic advocates of Surinam’s independence have been the Dutch. They are rapidly trying to unload the vestiges of its old colonial empire, an anachronistic embarrassment.

After four days of debate that often lasted until dawn, the parliament of the world’s newest, and 156th, sovereign state unanimously approved a constitution. The staid, protocol-conscious assembly in Surinam’s capital of Paramaribo erupted in cheers. Outside, a crowd waiting for the vote roared its approval and set off celebratory…

In the U.N. colonialism cut sharply across friendships, alliances and cold-war loyalties when Indonesia demanded debate on its proposal to eject the Dutch from W. New Guinea.

In its graceful glass and marble palace by New York’s East River, the ninth U.N. General Assembly opened last week with outward smoothness and inner doubts. Only one Big Four Foreign Minister, John Foster Dulles of the U.S., was on hand, and many delegates muttered that the U.N. was being…