UN General Assembly
1961

113. Self-determination without freedom is, of course, absurd. It was not surprising to us, therefore, that the first action of the so-called Papuan Council was of a rather peculiar character. The first decision of this Council is, in fact, very revealing. It consisted of a motion proposed, if not dictated, by the Netherlands Chairman and naturally adopted by the Council as a whole, to send a cable to the Netherlands Government at The Hague expressing, on behalf of the people of West Irian, the Council's abiding allegiance to the House of Orange—that is, to the Netherlands Crown— and its sentiments of strong ties with the Netherlands people. 114. Well, are the people of West Irian to be educated for independence or for perpetual dependence? This cable of the Papuan Council, though not surprising, is truly a remarkable indictment of the Dutch colonial mentality. Again it shows that the Dutch policy in West Irian is a colonial policy, pure and simple, And I may add, a rather old-fashioned one in this era of decolonization.