§ 2. Mr. Godman Irvineasked the Lord Privy Seal what steps have been taken by the United Nations Authority now in West New Guinea in respect of Article 16 of the agreement between Indonesia and Holland which provides that the indigenous people may decide their own future by the end of 1969.
§ The Joint Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Peter Thomas)There is no United Nations authority now in West New Guinea. The United Nations Temporary Executive Authority left the territory on 1st May after transferring the administration to Indonesia, and the United Nations' Representative envisaged in Article 16 of the Netherlands-Indonesian Agreement has not yet been appointed.
§ Mr. IrvineIs not my hon. Friend aware of the alarm that has been caused throughout the Pacific and elsewhere by the fact that the six democratic parties and the people of West New Guinea have been handed over to a dictator without any semblance of a democratic process? Is not my hon. Friend further aware that this alarm is increased by the contrast between that and the United Nations Committee's recommendations that the Secretary of Papua should increase the rate of democratic advance before independence? In these circumstances, does not he feel that Her Majesty's Government should firmly place these facts before the United Nations?
§ Mr. ThomasThe position is that the United Nations has done everything that is required under the Netherlands-Indonesian Agreement.