The Hague conference, where Indonesia and The Netherlands were trying to settle the status of West New Guinea (or Irian, as the Indonesians call it) failed after three weeks.

Dutch newsmen at The Hague conference, where Indonesia and The Netherlands were trying to settle the status of West New Guinea (or Irian, as the Indonesians call it), knew that negotiations had reached a delicate impasse. It was no time to confront the sensitive Indonesians with a blunt question, so…

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…