The Courier News from Blytheville, Arkansas • Page 12

PAGE TWELVE Victor DeBruyn vs. Indonesia's Drums; He Tenacious Dutch In Fight to Hold New Guinea By BRUCE B1OSSAT NBA Staff Correspondent NKW YORK (NEA) Victor DeBruyn, 41, who has lived in the jungle highlands of New Guinea through the hardships of peace and the ordeal of war, has come to America to tell a stoiy he knows well the fight of the Dutch colonials to hold their New Guinea soil against Indonesia's pressing claims. Here his wife for a nationwide lecture tour, DeBruyn reports the Dutch still holding the upper hand in the struggle for this giant island remnant of Holland's East Indies empire, a struggle that has ranged from appeals before the U.N. to Indonesian efforts to infiltrate small military detachments among New Guinea's natives. The prize in this contest is a strang, thinly populated land of largely untapped or unknown resources: a country of jungle-clad mountains reaching to 16,000 feet, of huge swamps and broad lakes, of eternal snows and fertile tropical valleys.

Perhaps a million Papuan natives live scattered across New Guinea's coastal plains and central highlands. You can walk days and never see another human. In the high country you can find some of the world's most primitive men, who labor still with stone instead of metal and may call a seaplane "the canoe that makes noise." DeBruyn, slimly built with intense brown eyes and graying hair, knows the region thoroughly. For 17 years he has served the Dutch colonial government in or near New Guinea, long as a district administrator in the highlands and now as a trainer of new administrators in the north coastal town Hollandia. In World War II DeBruyn stuck at his highalnd outpost, defied Japanese surrender demands and took olf for the hills to set up an intelligence lookout with a band of 40 stone-age natives as his eyes and ears.

For two years he radioed reports of Japanese activities to Australia. So great was the enemy It took DeBruyn three months to cover the last 30 miles to the coast when he was ordered to evacuate in 1944. After the war he came back, amid Indonesia's battle for independence from Dutch rule. In a 1949 treaty with the Dutch, the Indonesians control of much of the Netherlands East not New Guinea. Since then they have tried endlessly to add its 160,000 square BtYTHEVILLE (ARK.) COUNTER NEWS THURSDAY, NOVEATBER 3, 1955 VICTOR DE BRYUN AND WIFE: The prize, an untapped land.

miles to their sprawling island string. (Eastern New Guinea falls under control of Australia, whicn stands not far to the south.) The Indonesians, says DeBruyn, claim the Dutch portion on the ground it is properly part of the Dutch Indies and should have been ceded with the rest. In rebuttal the Dutch say New Guinea was specifically excepted by the 1949 treaty, leaving Indonesia no legal claim. They argue further that while Indonesia is largely Mongoloid and Moslem, New Guinea's Papuans are Negroid and include 200,000 Christians but few Moslems. "These people reflect great diversity of cultures and widely differing educational levels," DeBruyn adds.

"The Dutch are hot planning to stay always, but are trying to educate the natives to a level where they can make their own choice of a political future." As matters stand, the Dutch report annually to the U.N. on their stewardship, giving the islanders indirect protection aganst exploita- tion. "If Indonesia got New Guinea now," DeBruyn says, "there would be no more reports to the U.N. The Papuans would be swallowed up by the centralized government the Indonesians have established." But Indonesia appears unimpressed by Dutch argument. In 1954 the Jakarta government asked the U.N.

General Assembly to approve a resolution calling for Dutch-Indonesian negotiations over New Guinea. The measure failed. This year a new try is being made under auspices of the Afro-Asian nations which called the Bandung conference last spring. To date, no action. This has not been all.

According to DeBruyn, three times since 1950 the Indonesians have put small armed detachments ashore on New Guinea to foment trouble among the natives. The last effort, involving 50 soldiers, came in November, 1954. "All were caught in a few weeks," he says. "Most were seized by na- Reynolds Starts Construction Of Alabama Plant RICHMOND, Reynolds Metals Co. yesterday announced the start of construction on an 11 million dollar expansion preogram on its aluminum reduction plant at Llsterhill, Ala.

Louis Reynolds, vice president, said the work to be completed by July or August, 1956, would give the'company one of the most modern and efficient aluminum reduction plants in the world. Listerhill was the first aluminum plant built by Reynolds in 1940, the forerunner of a number of such operations which have made the company the No. 2 of the aluminum industry, The capacity of the plant will be increased from 100 million to about HO million pounds of primary aluminum a year, Reynolds said. Also included in the expansion will be an increase in the production capacity of the carbon-paste plane and a two. million dollar building to house an experimental potline.

When packing perfumes, lotions and other liquids, for a trip, tape the tops securely with Scotch tape rives themselves and turned over ro Dutch authorities. We found documents ordering the soldiers to try to stir up the Papuans against Dutch rule." He adds that the natives are HOT likely to be easy prey either for infiltrators or for the propaganda booklets that pour into New Guinea But fitting the natives to decide their own political destiny isn't easy. Though the Dutch traders firs'. touched New Guinea soil in 1602, its wild terrain has yielded slowly to human mastery. A third of its area and possibly two-thirds of its people are still not formally controlled by the Dutch administration.

Only some 280,000 Papuans are "registered" with the Dutch. The Dutch program for New Guinea: 1. Expand the administration to cover the whole area and all the people. 2. Open the land to industrial development.

3. Lift educational levels nightly 4. Equip the natives with better work habits and improve living conditions. 5. Prepare the Papuans for self- government through encouragement of village and then district councils.

If this ambitious course can be carried through, then DeBruyn feels that in two generations the people of New Guinea can decide for themselves, as people everywhere should, how the yshall live and be governed. FLUORINE FOR ALL OPPOSED Tooth Decay Program Needs Further Study By LEWIS HANEY Professor of Economics, New York University If someone tried to tell you the idea that a certain poison if administered in exact small doses would help some children, but others denied this, what would you do? I think you would say 'we will investigate, and await conclusive experiments." And if the propandist replied: "Other folks in your neighborhood are trying it," you would say, "My child is different. 1 won't take chances with him. 1 This is the fluoridation situation today. PROS AND CONS 1 find the following pros and cons concerning public mass water fluoridation designed to reduce tooth decay among children: 1.

Some doctors and dentists favor it. But some oppose it, and the American Medical Assn. refuses to support it. 2. Some communities have voted for H.

But some have voted against it. (About 400 towns are reported to have rejected it, and 20 have voted it out after a trial.) .1. Some dentists say that fluorine can check tooth decay, if taken in the right form and quantity. But others say that it causes other tooth trouble (mottled teeth) and often causes worse organic effects. OTHER CLAIMS Some claim that it prevents tootb decay in children.

But some point out that it doesn't touch the real cause of decay, and that has no good effect on persons over 12 years old. 5. The proponents of fluoridalion accept treatment of the water supply with one part of sodium fluoride to 1.000,000 parts of water. But opponents point out that some children drink more water than others or gel more fluorine in the foods they eat, so that your child may be one of many who would gel an overdose of th'S admittedly dangerous poison. (i.

Some argue that fluondalion is just like chlorination. But others reply that chlorination merely purifies the water without affecting our bodies. 7. Some surveys report no had effects from fluoridation. But there has been no time for the cumulative bad effects to show up, as they may in 10 years.

OPPOSES IDEA My judgement is about the same as that of the, American Medical Assn. Its council has said: "General use must await the completion of long-term stduies now in progress. Its effects are not yet fully established." But I would go beyond that, and oppose on social and scientific grounds that mass administration of poisonous fluorine. The big point is that the mass administration through water supply systems makes it utterly impossible to control the dose. This is a fatal weakness.

People di-ffer; hut they would all be given the same strength of fluorine. Worse still, some drink more water than others, or already get more fluorine in other forms. It's much like trying to make everybody well by forcing all to eat bran or drink lemon juice, or like giving us all equal incomes to make us all happy. (Only those things aren't chemically poisonous.) The proposed fluoridation relies on inorganic forms of fluorides very different from organic forms found in naturally fluoridated waters. It has definite cumulative effects, so that small doses pile up in the system and could have serious Inter results.

COMMITTEE AGAINST FLUORIDATION Frank C. Douglas VOTE FOR Continued Progress for BLYTHEVILLE RE-ELECT MAYOR E. R. "RABBIT" JACKSON Tuesday, Nov. 8, 1955 THIS IS THE RECORD-FACTS ARE FACTS More Streets Hove Been Improved In The Lost Two Years Than During Any Like Period In The History of BlytheviUe More than 160 blocks of our city's streets have been improved under the present nearly 100 of them paved and over 60 dirt streets surfaced with gravel.

This program to get our citizens out of the dust, which has not added one cent to the indebtedness of our city, will be continued as a No. 1 project. A New Modern Sewer System is Assured The biggest menance to the health and well-being of citizens will soon be eliminated. After many months of hard work plans for a new and modern sewage disposal system, taking care of the needs of all our people, will have matured. Under the present administration a sewer ordinance was presented to the people, who approved it by an overwhelming majority.

Immediately following the mandate from the peopfe a sewer commission was appointed, and the contracts have now been let for the installation of these badly needed facilities. $1,000,000 Monthly Pay Roll Brought to BlytheviUe Through Reactivation Of The Blytheville Air Force Base More work for more people, and a better, more prosperous community for us all will be the result of reactivation of the Blytheville Air Base. When this activity is in full operation it is reliably estimated that the monthly pay roll will amount to over Sl.000,000—wih an additional half million dollars to be spent locally for needed materials and supplies. Your present mayor worked hand in hand with those who were instrumental in bringing about this important development. Several Hundred New Jobs Provided By Industrial Development Of Past Two Years Industry has come to town because we went out and encouraged to come here instead of just sitting and wishing we had some.

Central Metals, for example, is here today giving employment to many, improving business condition for many more, because your city administration worked hand in hand with your Chamber of Commerce and our progressive business and civic leaders to get it here. With the continuance of a progressive city administration additional industry will also choose Blytheville. A Revitalized And Improved Fire Department Saves Our Citizens Over A Quarter Million Dollars In Insurance Premiums Annually Several important measures have been adopted to keep our citizens insurance rates from going up. The annual savings in insurance rates alone amounts to over a quarter of a mHlion dollars annually. A new aerial pumper truck, cost 537,950.00, has been purchased and placed in operation.

A new $25,000.00 addition to the city's central fire sla'ion has been constructed. Six fully trained full- time firemen have been added to our present efficient volunteer fire department. Constant attention wHl continue to be given to this important department for the protection of he life and proptery of our citizens. New Municipal Airport Plans Are Under Way A new and urgently needed Municipal Airport is another important project that has been started and will be completed without undue delay. Money to purchase land for these facilities is in the bank, and the site for the new development has been approved by CAA.

Since some industrial prospects have been lost because of this need, every effort is being made to obtain the facilities at the earliest possible date. City Planning Commission Is Established Of vilal importance to our rapidly expanding comunity, a City Planning Commission has been established and is already doing an outstand job toward solving many of our "growing pains" which are the natural result of the prosoerity we today enjoy. This Commission was set up under the present administration and will continue to receive the full support of your Mayor in its important Our City Is In Sound Financial Condition In Spite Of These Numerous New Improvements Under sound business administration all of the above benefits, as well as numerous smaller ichievements, have been accomplisheed without spending money we couldn't afford. For every dollar spent our citizens received 100 cents worth of improvements for our city. Our city is in financial shape, and when reelected, your present mayor will devote all his efforts toward keeping it that way.

Community Cooperation Got The Ball Rolling Let's Take It On To The Goal Line The above programs have been successful because your present mayor called on, and obtained, the cooperation and teamwork of all our good citizens. When reelected, this same kind of good government will continue for the benefit of all, not just for a select few. E. R. JACKSON HAS THE EXPERIENCE AND THE PROVEN ABILITY TO DO THE JOB.

HE IS WILLING TO GIVE THE TIME NECESSARY TO DO IT RIGHT Vote For Positive Action Personal Ambition VOTE FOR E. R. "RABBIT" JACKSON Tuesday, November 8th Your Vott and Support Will Be Appreciated Pol. Ad. Paid For By E.

R. Jackson.