Netherlands New Guinea in 1956: how to move?

Used Change of Address Card sent from Sorong 3 on the 11th of July 1956 to Amsterdam. 

Until fairly recently there existed a specific type of postal stationary in the Netherlands: the so called Verhuiskaart or Change of address card in English. In the Netherlands it was introduced in the late 1910s as cheaper alternative for the ordinary letter card. Moving to another premises had always caused logistical problems for the PTT and the new and cheap preprinted Verhuiskaart might ease the service's workload. It certainly was a clever device to make people aware of a forthcoming change of address and it must have contributed to a smarter and streamlined postal service. In short: it benefited both the PTT and the users, a win-win game and therefore very Dutch. I'm not aware of foreign change of address cards, but I would be keen to know!

Of course verhuiskaarten were available in the Dutch colonies as well. In the DEI people and businesses used them frequently, since there was a large Dutch presence until the 1950s. It should be noted though that a Malaysian translation was printed below or beside the Dutch text from the introduction from 1909 onwards. So even literate natives and Asian traders might have used them. For the attentive reader: verhuiskaarten were indeed introduced in the DEI 10 years prior to their introduction in Holland.... In the West (as the expression goes) there was no need for change of address cards apparently. The literate population of Suriname and Curacao was very small when compared to the DEI. Hence you might be surprised - and rightly so - why the (still) very large, but almost unpopulated colony of Netherlands New Guinea introduced a verhuiskaart... Even in its heydays the colony counted less than 15.000 literate inhabitants which rarely moved.   

It remains to be seen which argument was used to introduce the verhuiskaart in NNG. It might be suggested that the Dutch 'settlers' from Java and Sumatra were familiar with the concept? The card appeared on the 1st of August 1950. The 3c rate was of course less than the standard 5c letter card rate.  

Reverse of the NNG verhuiskaart

By now it won't come as a surprise that this specific verhuiskaart is a very rare piece in used condition. Extremely rare even when it has been used within NNG. Only contemporary philatelists in New Guinea and the Netherlands seem to have been aware of its existence, so the majority of the used card known to us have been used and stored by philatelists. Unused it's no rarity at all, although only ca. 6400 ex. were ever printed according to Geuzendam.   

The card which serves as illustration to this article is a commercially used example which was sent to the Netherlands. Not as rare as inland use, but nevertheless very rare!! It sold for €600 (ex. buyer's premium ),- at Corinphila NL in 2016.

The NNGPM terrain near Sorong - buzzing with economic activity in the late 1940s 

Sorong in the extreme northwest of Papua is home to the country's profitable oil industry. In 1908 oil was discovered by Shell and in the 1930s the first well was drilled by the NNGPM the Nederlandsch Nieuw-Guinea Petroleum Maatschappij. The Sorong oil wells were one of the economical arguments used by the Dutch to maintain power in NNG after the Indonesian war of Independence. In the mid 1950s the industry was booming, but only a few years later the wells dried up to a large extent and Sorong dried up along with it. The oil company entered into liquidation and a real exodus took place in the early 1960s. It would take decades before the new oil companies would find new wells. Nowadays Sorong is Papua's major economical hub again.   

Concrete oil storage tankers being erected in Sorong harbour the late 1940s.
The island on the horizon, Sorong Doöm, used to be the administrative centre of Sorong 

 

Photo from 1938 which  - I think -  shows the same terrain as the NNGPM area earlier.
Copyright: KB - https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=urn:gvn:KIT01:219635

When the timing is wrong - postcards to E.W. Rose 1931

In this blog entry I will try to understand why the five picture postcards below were initially unsuccessful in reaching their proposed addressee: E.W. Rose. A philatelist approached me during our last auction because he had read somewhere that I fancied postal items with a story attached to them. Well, this blog is quite a testimony to this gentleman's statement, so I replied that I indeed write about interesting postal items from time to time. To my great surprise he handed me over the five postcards below, placing his confidence in me that I would deduce an interesting story from them. His initial feeling was right, since these five interlinking postcards presents us indeed with a telling view on how correspondence could still literally miss the boat as late as in 1931.

MS Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the cruise ship which fared regularly between the Netherlands and the Dutch Indies in the 1930s and became a Dutch troop ship after WWII 

Saddles and Sugar      

A certain E.W. Rose had a saddlery on the Nieuwendijk in Amsterdam between 1903 and 1915 according to the archive of Amsterdam. I do not know if this E.W. Rose is the same Rose as our addressee, but my gut feeling says that our Rose would be his son. In the Dutch Indies newspaper De Indische Courant d.d. 30-12-1926 we read that E.W. Rose has departed a sugar factory called 'Wonolangan' (northeastern coast of Java) where he worked as first engineer. I cannot find anything about him or his family until 1931 where he appears in De Indische Courant again since he is listed amongst the boarding passengers for the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt which would return from the Dutch Indies to the Netherlands on the 14th of October. His son and daughter ('Dear papa') sent him various postcards which I guess where meant to entertain him whilst he was on route back to the Netherlands.

I've posted scans of them below as the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt would have travelled from the Netherlands to the Dutch Indies (in reverse order) instead however, since the postcard with destination Colombo would have arrived sooner than the one to Batavia obviously. Miep and Fik (?) sent their 5 cards to Colombo, Sabang, Singapore, Belawan and Batavia. 

       

Picture postcard sent from Amsterdam 09-09-1931 to Colombo 

Since all their postcards were sent on the same day (9 September 1931) one would expect the would all arrive at their proposed destinations on time. And I think in all cases there arrived way ahead on schedule (Sabang: 27-9-1931, Belawan: 28-9-1931 etc.). I even think E.W. Rose did actually board the MS Johan van Oldebarnevelt on the 14th of October since the postcard addressed to Singapore and Belawan seems to have been delivered without any problems although the pinkish cachet "on board Joh. van Oldenbarnevelt undeliverable" seems to suggest otherwise at first. But at a closer look we see that this cachet was crossed out with pencil. This might indicate he was on board the ship contrary to all the markings on several postcards.

Crossed out cachet reading "Aan boord 'Joh v. Oldenbarnevelt' ONBESTELBAAR" (on board Joh. van Oldenbarnevelt undeliverable) on postcard with destination Belawan. 

Picture postcard from Amsterdam 09-09-1931 to Sabang (27-09-1931) 

Several postcards, if not all of them, seem to have been addressed a bit carelessly since they were  sent without a clear indication if the addressee was heading for Batavia or Amsterdam (outbound or homebound). The Johan van Oldenbarnevelt departed Amsterdam on the 2nd of September 1931 so caused confusion, i.e. to the postal authorities on resp. Ceylon and in Sabang it was not clear what to do with the postcards.  A Colombo postal agent readdressed the card to c/o Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland in Singapore and indeed it was finally handed over to the S.M.N. Passage on the 12th of October: it functioned i.a. as the dead letter office for post addressed to passengers on the Netherlands-Dutch Indies steamboat lines. The Sabang postcard was readdressed to Batavia since E.W. Rose was not on board of the Van Oldenbarnevelt destined for Batavia. They probably thought E.W. Rose was on the boat to Batavia whereas he was only to leave the Dutch Indies on the 14th of October. In the end the markings in red on the Sabang postcard (return to sender, not on board) where crossed out because they noticed the hastily added instruction (van Batavia 14 October) whereupon they forwarded the card to Batavia.

Picture postcard from Amsterdam 09-09-1931 to Singapore

There was less confusion in Singapore and Belawan as the postcards weren't forwarded but just patiently had to wait until the homebound journey of the Van Oldenbarnevelt would pay his visit to these ports.

Picture Postcard from Amsterdam 09-09-1931 to Belawan (28-09-1931)

The postcard addressed to Batavia caused some confusion as well, since the sender wrote down "8 October" which might indicate E.W. Rose was a passenger on the outbound journey from Amsterdam. For some reason the postcard was readdressed to Soerabaja then, the main city on eastern Java. It travelled 400 miles in one day, so it was probably carried by train. Why did the postal authorities in Batavia decide to forward the postcard to Soerabaja? Somebody wrote Soerabaja below Batavia: did the children of E.W. Rose did this? The handwriting doesn't seem to match... Maybe the Van Oldenbarnevelt would have payed a visit to this major port as well before departing Batavia on the 14th? Or did E.W. Rose stayed in Soerabaja during his time in the Dutch Indies? As always we cannot find all answers on our questions.  

Picture Postcard from Amsterdam 09-09-1931 to Batavia (06-10-1931)

The SM Johan van Oldenbarnevelt in the harbour of Tandjoengpriok (harbour of Batavia) at some point in the 1930s. The white building was the main office of the Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (S.M.N.), the Dutch Steamboat Company. 

Sarangan (Dutch East Indies) - Westwoud 1937

Sarangan - Java

In the years before the devastating Second World War and the Indonesian National Revolution in the 1940s, some previously economically inviable areas of the Indonesian archipelago began to thrive due to Dutch technological innovation in tropical agriculture and forestry. Apart from Java, the other islands (Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, numerous other small islands and especially the vast area of Dutch Guinea) had previously not been colonized at all. In the 19^th century the Dutch governor-general of the Indies was supported by Dutch ‘residents’ who had to supervise the local native rulers, known as ‘regents’. On Java this system worked quite well most of the times, although there were obviously various uprisings throughout its existence. Dutch rule (i.e. supervision) outside Java was less stringent and to a certain degree less important as the other islands couldn't sustain an extensive Dutch bureaucratic apparatus yet.    

This all changed in the early 20^th century when spectacular innovations in technology, infrastructure, agriculture etc. reached the Indies as well. Increasing numbers of students at the Technical University of Delft and the National Agricultural College in Wageningen caused recently graduated engineers and agricultural experts to move to the Indies. The cultivation of large area’s outside Java became priority number one: mining of raw material and the cultivation of rubber figs (ficus elastica) was perceived as extremely lucrative.      

The increase of economic activity in the Indies triggered or activated other processes as well: in the Netherlands it was felt that education of children in the Indies should be similar to the Dutch system. Since a lot of Dutch people which moved to the Indies in these years had received some kind of degree back in the Netherlands, they wanted to be sure that their children would receive sufficient education as well. Besides education for European children, the Dutch government accepted an ethical policy in 1901 which had as purpose to stimulate welfare and progress amongst the native people. Education was seen as a key to unlock this process and therefore many schools for Indonesian children opened in subsequent years. I might – unnecessarily – add that the goal of educating every Indonesian child was utopian and thus never reached. In the end only children of the higher ‘regent’ classes received education and then primarily on Java.      

Reverse of the card with address details 

Now we should return to this particular picture postcard. Besides that it captures a fabulous view of the Sarangan mountain, a mountain which attracted many Dutch tourists from the 1930s (below you'll find more information about this place), the sender and especially the address caught my attention when it appeared on my screen online. The card was sent to a certain miss (Mej.: Mejuffrouw) Schaper in Westwoud. This village neighbours Hoogkarspel where I grew up. Apart from this surprise, I was intrigued that before the war and revolt (card was sent in July 1937) someone who was probably related to miss Schaper lived on Java. The people of Westwoud were mainly catholic back then (I know that the Schaper family was for sure) and this collided with my views of the Dutch rule over the Indies. I thought that almost all civil servants, engineers and agricultural experts were of protestant descent. At least I didn’t know anyone from the catholic villages in West Frisia to have moved to the Indies.           

So I went online and to little surprise I discovered that the sender Dirk is in all likelihood the brother of A. Schaper. After some more research I found out that Dirk Schaper had been a teacher on Java! This took away all my doubts who the sender could have been. 

Sarangan Typenrader Langebalk (longbeam) postmark reading 7.7.37.10-11V

In 1937 Dirk Schaper (1892-1962) sent this postcard to his sister Aagje Schaper (1889-1965) who then lived in the Halfweg (Halfway) inn. Together with her brother Piet Schaper (1895-1965) and her sister Catharina (Ka) Schaper (1878-1949) she run this inn from 1919 (death of her father) till its closure in the 1950s or ‘60s. The family originally came from the Binnenwijzend (small hamlet south of Westwoud), but their father quit his job as farmer because of his health. As his son Piet Schaper wrote in the Westfrisian chronicle of 1965: “In 1894 kocht mijn vader de herberg. Hoi was boer in Binnenwoizend, maar deur tongblaar, longziekte, varkenspest en houge huur en drougte kon dat niet langer. Nei m’n vaders dôôd in 1919 bin ik kasteloin worren en dat bin ik nou nag…” (Translation: "My father bought the inn in 1894. He was a farmer on the Binnenwijzend, but because of footh-and-mouth disease, lung disease, swine fever, high rent and drought he wasn’t able to continue. After his death in 1919 I became innkeeper and that’s my job still…").

Schaper family of the Halfweg Inn in Westwoud: f.l.t.r. Piet Schaper, Ka Schaper, Mother Schaper (Maartje Snip) and Aagje Schaper (receiver of our postcard). © Het Geheugen van Westwoud

My father pointed out that Dirk, Aagje and all other Schaper family members are related to me. The grandmother of my great-grandmother Maartje van der Gulik (1897-2000) was called Maartje Schaper (1842-1915). Subsequently her grandfather was called Sijfert Schaper (1779-1829). Sijfert Schaper is our common ancestor. So after all, this philatelicly not so interesting postcard has proved to be an extraordinary postcard history- and familywise!

Café Halfweg (Halfway Inn) with allegedly father Dirk Schaper in the doorway. Picture taken in 1918 or 1919 since the rails of the famous horse-drawn streetcar had already been removed (service stopped on the 31st of December 1917). Father Dirk Schaper passed away in 1919. 

Sarangan 

Dirk Schaper stayed in Sarangan in July 1937 and I think it's likely he enjoyed his holidays there. From the early 1920s on Dutchmen gradually found there way to this hidden gem, located on the green eastern slope of the Lawu volcano thus basically being isolated from western Java. It took until 1937 before a road was opened from Sarangan to the west. And only 10 years earlier the last kilometers from the town of Magetan to the east were only accessible by horse or foot. No easy place to reach. Which raises a question: why were the Dutchmen and other Europeans so eager to come to this mountain lake? The following Dutch account might give you the answer:

“Toen de bestuurder de auto aan de voet van het hotel tot stilstand bracht, aanschouwden wij voor het eerst het meer van Sarangan. Veel hebben wij gereisd: door China en Japan, door Amerika, door de Europese Alpen, genietende van de schitterendste natuurtaferelen. Van dít oord kunnen wij echter verklaren dat het door zijn schoonheid, zijn liefelijkheid, zó’n wondere indruk op ons maakte dat we onszelf beloofden, hier onze vakantie eens door te zullen brengen. [….] Sarangan, met zijn meer, zijn eilandje, zijn omringende heuvelen en bossen, is voor ons een openbaring geweest.”

"When the driver parked the car right on the curb of the hotel, we saw the lake of Sarangan for the first time. We've travelled a lot: we've been in China and Japan, in America and the Europeans alps, enjoying the very best of nature. We could state of this place though that due to its beauty and sweetness it made such a marvelous impression on us that we promised ourselves to celebrate our holidays here once. [....] Sarangan, with its lake, its islet, its surrounding hills and forests proved to be a revelation for us."  

Besides its stunning location, natural swimming pool and lush forests, one distinct feature lured many Europeans to the resort: its cool climate. At 1500 meters above sea level they could cool down there overheated bodies in the lake and its surrounding rain forests. A truly European refuge. 

Sarangan - view to the northeast

Netherlands New Guinea - a short history

Map of New Guinea with an overview of steamboat connections in 1915, published in Batavia

After the Dutch East Indies became independent Indonesia in 1949, there remained several disputes unresolved between the new republic and the Netherlands. One of them was the gigantic province of New Guinea which equals Poland in size and which landmass is about 8 times larger than the Netherlands. Nevertheless, in 1949 there existed little to non Dutch colonial activity as it was never deemed profitable for proper cultivation. Besides, the Netherlands only barely started exploiting the enormous amount of natural resources on Sumatra and Borneo in the 1930s. In short: there was no real interest in New Guinea, apart from some colonial internment/concentration camps for Indonesian / Communist independence activists from 1926 onward. The local tribes which inhabited this large island mainly covered by tropical forest remained undisturbed.

Photograph of a bay on the north coast of New Guinea. This photo was taken by Gijsbert van der Sande on the 1903 North New Guinea expedition. One of the first Dutch scientific expeditions on this vast island. Tropenmuseum Collection.

This all changed in 1949 when Indonesia became independent. To ratify its independence the Netherlands had to agree politically on the the issue. This turned out to be quite a difficult matter. After two years of war against the independence movement the Netherlands was forced by the U.S.A. to settle the dispute. So shortly after WOII, the Netherlands was heavily depended upon the states for financial aid and supplies. More than 50% of the Dutch population held a negative opinion about an independent 'Indië'. This attitude created a major dilemma: it proved to be struggle to find a majority in the 2nd Chamber (Dutch lower house) to ratify the independence treaty. Moreover, Sukarno's highly dubious position regarding his collaboration with the Japanese during WOII created many additional problems for the then ruling PvdA to 'sell' this deal to the Dutch people. To cope with this political problem the PvdA proposed an unilateral addendum to the treaty: that the Dutch could retain control over New Guinea for the time being. This made it possible for the PvdA to get a majority in the 2nd and 1st Chambers and it softened the loss of the 'emerald girdle', a cognomen Multatuli once devised to describe the 'Oost'.

Sukarno in 1949

Of course this 'addendum' was a major blow for Sukarno, but he grudgingly accepted: he probably reasoned that it was now or never for his independent Indonesia. As stated above already, New Guinea was deemed uncultivated, inhospitable and wild in Dutch eyes. Sukarno likely reasoned the same: the vast country was of no necessity for the young republic at the moment and more importantly, there lived little to none Indonesians.

The old colonizer happily proclaimed 'Netherlands New Guinea' as their new colony and transported a small army of dignitaries, officials and soldiers to its new capital which was known as Hollandia and was situated close to the border of Australian territory of Papua and New Guinea. During the early 1950s Australian became a friend of the Dutch regime since it feared a communist led Indonesia bordering its province. Strengthened by this newly gained trust from Western allies, the Dutch government put the idea of handing New Guinea over to Indonesia in the 'refrigerator' as we say in Holland. We shelved the plan.

Sukarno felt obviously belittled over the matter and raised the stakes: he expelled Dutch Indonesians, attacked the Moluccans in 1950 and threatened to stop trade with its former colonizer. From 1957 onward relations between the two countries grew even worse: strikes in Dutch factories in Indonesia, trade bans on products imported from the Netherlands etc. Sukarno did everything to drive the Dutch government to the limit. Together with the under performing New Guinean economy and local resistance made it clear that Netherlands New Guinea wasn't meant to be for the long term.

Tensions reached boiling point in 1959 when a nationalistic government was created in the Hague. Cabinet De Quay was in favour of keeping New Guinea and it made it possible for Dutch conscripts to fight in colonies overseas. This policy made it easier to send troops to New Guinea, which lacked an army of its own. Meanwhile, Indonesia had developed an army which could easily take possession of the last bit of Dutch-possessed land if Sukarno wished. Still, he didn't know for sure how the U.S.A. would react if he dared to make such a bold move. Communis opinio had it that the U.S.A. supported the Dutch cause in this matter....

De Quay Cabinet bordes scene after Queen Juliana appointed all members by royal decision in Huis ten Bosch Palace - 1959

This all changed in late 1960 and 1961 when the Netherlands sent its troops to New Guinea: it turned into a diplomatic fiasco and was an absolute failure. The sabre rattling probably caused the U.S.A. to shift its position about the issue. Kennedy wanted to avoid a second conflict in Asia at all costs. He thought that the Netherlands provoked Indonesia which lured Sukarno into communism. He could buy plenty of weapons in Russia...

In the end Netherlands New Guinea fortunately saw little fighting between Dutch and Indonesian troops and in early 1962 De Quay made it clear he would like to negotiate with Indonesia about the transfer of power. In the meantime  a temporary executive authority led by the United Nations (UNTEA) would be in charge over the former colony. The Dutch left the colony on the 1st of October 1962, Indonesia took possession of it on the 1st of May 1963.

During the short existence of Netherlands New Guinea, it issued its own stamps- some of them were overprinted with UNTEA in 1962. Since not many Dutch officials lived in the colony and many of its native people were illiterate, its postal history is fairly unknown and real (non-philatelic) items are quite scarce. Especially covers from smaller towns and villages are sought after, as well as interesting locations to which covers were addressed. Most of them were sent from its capital, Hollandia, or Biak (airfield) to the Netherlands. Other destinations are quite rare. In my next post I will tell you something about the cover below, which was sent to France!