Netherlands - Norway - Sweden

Feb. 26 Houses on stilts in West New Guinea: Native fisherman live in houses built on stilts over the sea near the oil port of Sorong. They fish from old-fashioned prahus and earn up to £ 10 for a night's catch.:Worried future in Dutch New Guinea as Oilfields are not found. Dutch New Guinea: A Netherlands Colony which remains Dutch: In spite of Indonesia's independence and its apparent triumph over the robels, and recent trends to independence of all colonial territories in these area, Dutch New Guinea remains firmly Dutch. Negotiations on its future broke down a year after they started, and have not been seriously recommenced. At the Western tip of Dutch New Guinea is the small 12-year-old oil-port of Sorong where some 200 oil men and their families live. The oil company runs schools, hospital, and has built houses for Europeans and natives. Every month a supply ship arrives from Holland and The European club is the scene of a party and film shows. Only dark spot on the horizon is that the oil field is running out and has never, in fact proved to be a large one. It was in 1936 that the Dutch New Guinea Oil Company began investigating. It is a 40% B.P.M. (Roy. Dutch Shell) 40% Stanvac and 20% Pacific Investments company, and has a concession of 24 million acres in Dutch New Guinea. Oil was struck at Klamono in 1936 and production started. During the war all was destroyed but in 1946 work resumed and the port of Sorong was constructed, with a road and pipeline to the fields, 36 miles away. Ten million guilders were spent on roads and when Klamono was abandoned in 1955 the road was left unmaintained. Now Communications are kept by helicopter services. The staff is gradually being reduced but search for new sources goes on as being the one hope for the territory. Holland spends 50 million guilders annually on development and 450 million on defence. Private investors are chary because ownership in the future is undecided

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12-year-old Acres And Pound Annually Apparent Broke Concession Constructed Earn Fact Firmly Gradually Guilders Guinea Indonesias Investigating Investments Investors Kept Negotiations Oilfields Ownership Pipeline Proved Recent Reduced Resumed Runs Seriously Sorong Sources Spends Spent Spite Stilts Struck Territories Trends Undecided

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