The Wilmington morning star., 1940-10-02
Dutch Indies
BY T EDISON
Editor, NEA Service

Aviation, and with American-made
planes, is playing a major role in
the development of the Dutch East
Indies, bringing closer together the
thousand and more big, medium
sized and tiny islands in this South
Pacific archipelago, 5000 miles
east to west, 1900 from north to
south.
One example tells the tale. For.
merly, a Dutch civil service con-
troller going to a new post in Bor-
neo's jungle had to spend a month
by boat, travelling 1000 miles up
river. Now he can be flown in
from the capital in a mere matter
of hours.
The whole story of flying to an6
in the Indies begins with DR..
Thomassen A. T. Van der Hoop, a
prematurely bald young Dutch
man who is now, of all things, III
rator of archaeology in the ma
tional museum at Batavia. Twenty
five years ago, as a young pilot
in Holland, he conceived the crazy
idea Of flying from Amsterdam to
the Indies. He got backing and
with two other foolhardy souls,
set out in an old amphibian,
crossed Europe, the Near East,
India-9000 miles in a month, pi-
oneering a route which up to the
outbreak of the war was flying it
in a week, one plane every other
day.
SERVICE
STARTED IN 1928
DR.. Van der Hoop saw no future
in flying-for pilots-and So turned
to the mor lasting study Of the
impact of foreign invasions on Jaw
anese society, and in his timeless
way he considers the modern rule
of the Dutch as merely the most
recent of these %invasions. Hindus
and Mohammedans invaded and
ruled the lands in their turn, be-
ginning with the sixth century.
who's next? And will invasion
be by air?)
Anyway, as early as 1928, avia-
ton seemed here to stay and in
that year the Royal Netherlands
Indies anyways, Koninklijke Neder-
landsch Indische Luchtvaart
Maatschappij, KNILM for short,
began a 65-mile service from Ba-
tavia to Bandoeng, Java. Today
KN1LM operates on nine different
routes, flying 200, 900 nilec a month
carrying $4,000 passengers a nd
$40, 900 pounds of mail and freight
a year.
From Sidney and Port Darwin,
Australia, KNILM planes fly to
Bali, most colorful spot in the Pa
cific. From Bali, on to Soerabaya
and Batavia in densely populated
Java, the scenery taking in vol
canoes, crater lakes, rice, rubber,
sugar and tobacco lands all laid
out in the most intensive cultiva-
ton in the world.
Sunday in Batavia, capital of the
Indies, is the day to spend at the
big modern airport. Planes are in
from Palestine, from Singapore
and out to the distant spots of the
island empire. They cross Sum-
atra. the big rubber producing
area They reach oil fields in
places with high-sounding names
like Palembang, Balikpapan, Ia
rakan, Observation-Disclosures to be
relished by an old fashioned train
caller.
FISH EGGS TO
REFINERY PARTS
In freight they haul everything
from fish eggs to stock a sultan's
private trout stream to spare parts
for a cracking unit at an oil re-
finery or flesh vegetables to some
isolated white man in need of vita
minis. Drugs and newsreels and
the latest thrillers from Hollywood
and periodicals from New York,
with international postage running
up to a dollar an ounce.
The fish eggs, by the way, may
be descended from California
rainbow trout, imported to New
Zealand in freshwater tanks 60
years ago. The machine parts
keep the wheels going in the jungle
plantations, Formerl,, in case of
a breakdown, it took from six
months to a year to get replace
ments from Europe or America.
Orders 60 out by radiogram, now,
and requirements arrive in a cou-
pie of weeks.
All this internal air development
is looking for new International
connections. The Dutch would like
to fly to Manila, tying up with