Evening star., 1943-09-12
Dr.. Honig, Dutch Scientist,
Plans for Postwar East Indies
Faces Many Problems
In Restoring Islands
To Former Prosperity
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

Olic Ol tIle tedSt puplClIcU IlcIl VI
international prominence in Wash
ington is DR.. Pieter Honig, commits
sioner of the Board of Economic and
Financial Affairs of the Netherlands
Indies, Surinam and Curacao.
A gifted linguist who speaks Eng
Hsh, French and German as fluent
" as he does his mother tongue, this
world famous Netherlands agricul-
tural scientist, economist and CO.
lonial administrator was elected
president of the International So
ciety of Sugar Cane Technologists at
its last meeting at Baton Rouge, La,
In 1888.
Now he is trying to help solve the
difficult postwar problems for the
Netherlands East Indies which will
have to be met once the yoke of
Japanese oppression is removed.
f Wife Presumed Captive.
This prematurely gray, humani-
tartan Hollander, whose whole adult
life has been given to colonial serv-
ice for his country, has not heard
from his wife since one morning in
Java, when, with certain high Dutch
government officials, she was ordered
aboard plane for Australia, with
the invading japanese but 80 miles
away by jungle approach. From
their three children, previously sent
to Holland, he has heard but once
since the German occupation of this
land.
His Washington Office is on the
second floor Of 1920 Belmont road,
once the home of Charles G. Dawes,
former Vice President of the United
States. Recently the whole house
has been taken over as the head
quarters of the Netherlands Eco
nomic, Financial and Shipping Mis-
sion.
DR.. Honig is approaching the So
luton of the postwar problems of
the Netherlands East Indies with
clear realism in regard to. the
changes the war may have made in
world markets, as we'll as with ideal
istic humanitarianiSm and the un-
usually versatile background of a
leader who is both a scientist and
an administrator.
Sugar, Rubber Authority.
As the former director of one of
the Netherlands East Indies lead
ing sugar experiment stations, and
as the administrator of its rubber
research work before the Japanese
invasion, he Is an authority on both
sugar and rubber. He is also one
Of the worlds greatest experts in
tropical agriculture. In this field
alone, he has studied native nutri-
ton problems first-hand in Puerto
Rico, Cuba, Haiti, New Guinea and
Spain and travelled extensively in
agricultural areas In European
countries and the United States. He
was a delegate to the Hot Springs
food conference.
In his opinion, the postwar world
will demand food first, In many
countries, he believes, the slogan Of
gums before butter" will be supple
mented by program the slogan
Of which viii be butter before
armament"
I How this modified theology will
change the quantitative structure of
the world, both for the Netherlands
Indies and other lands he considers
a. problem which can only be vague
;ly approximated. But he is conf
dent that world trade In foodstuffs
will have a much wider scope than
world dealings In technical and So
called strategic materials.
Cites Islands Riches.
The Netherlands Indies with its
many islands, DR. Honig points out,
is territory equal in the aggregate
to the area of the United States.
It's riches lie in its fertile soil. The
profitable growing of sugar, rubber,
quinine, copra, coffee, tea, spices,
palm olive oils, kapok, cocoa, tapioca
and derris, used for insecticides, now
items so critically needed by the
United Nations, was due in large
part to the Netherlanders. Neither
lands scholars, in their numerous
experimental laboratories, have i'm
proved the quality of all of them.
They also found new ways of COM
batting the peculiar diseases which
attacked them and developing
disease-resistant varieties. These
experiments Of theirs in turn
helped set the pattern for the whole
scientific world wherever similar
conditions of soil and growth pre-
vailed.
The Netherlanders also set up
political, colonial administration
by their policy of seeking the eco
non1ic participation of the natives
In their country and a systematic
program to substitute existing food
crops for others that would give
better-balanced diets.
Changed by japanese.
All of this" DR.. Honig empha-
sizes, was necessarily changed by
the Japanese occupation of of the
Netherlands East Indies. Naturally.
too. the United Nations were COM
PEELED to develop their own pro-
2ducflon of materials formerly i'm