Opening of the New Guinea conference

Dutch

At the Round Table Conference in 1949 an agreement was reached on the sovereignty of Indonesia. The Dutch part of New Guinea was expressly left out of the agreement, in spite of strong pleas for the territory by the Indonesian Republic. It was agreed that the matter would be settled before 27 December 1950 by negotiations. On 4 December the Dutch and Indonesian representatives gather for their first official meeting in the Trèveszaal in The Hague. Present are a.o. the minister of Oversea Territories, mr. J.H. van Maarseveen, the minister of Foreign Affairs, mr. D.U. Stikker, the minister of Social Affairs mr. A.M. Joekes, prime minister dr. W. Drees, the Indonesian High Commissioner Mohammed Roem and other Indonesians. SHOTS: - The gentlemen enter, shake hands and have an informal talk; - all are seated at the conference table and listen to the speeches of Van Maarseveen and Roem; - on a topographical map the position of New Guinea compared to Indonesia and Australia is shown; 00:06 Van Maarseveen (left); Roem (right); 00:15 from left to right behind the table Drees, Stikker, Joekes; 00:51 Drees (left); Stikker (right).