TERM “DUTCH” BANNED

Evening Star, Issue 22145, 27 September 1935, Page 16

TERM “DUTCH” BANNED

Expressions such as Dutch East Indies, Dutch Guiana and similar appellations are misnomers in English as written in The Hague, now that Holland has officially banned “ Dutch ” as an adjective, according to a bulletin from the National Geographic Society. Holland’s possessions in Bast Indias are now known as “ Netherland India,” while “ Surinam ” is the name applied to what was popularly labelled “ Dutch Guiana ” “ Although the Kingdom of Netherlands is not as extensive ns the French and British domains upon which the ‘ sun never sets,’ it includes colonial possessions in both hemispheres that are nearly CO times the area of the Homeland, which is approximately the same size as the State of Maryland,” says the writer. “ Only one segment of colonial Netherlands is on a Continental mainland — Surinam (formerly Dutch Guina), one of the European triplets that occupies the northern coast of South America. The remainder consists of islands, most of them off the south-eastern, coast pi

Asia, between the Malay Peninsula and Australia. , “ Netherlands’ holdings on the Island of Borneo are five times the size of the State of New York. One half of New Guinea is governed by Queen ■ Wilhelmina. Sumatra, another Netherland possession, contains more square i miles than the State of California, ■ Java and its neighbour, Madura, are nearly equal in area to the State of Alabama; the Celebes Islands are nearly the same size as the State of i Louisiana, and thousands of other East Indian islands, large and small, if i drawn together, would nearly equal the broad expanse of Texas. “ Surinam, which is slightly larger than the State of Pennsylvania, is largely undeveloped. The colony of Curacao, the only other important possession of the Netherlands in the New World, consists of a group of islands of the West Indies lying off the coast of Venezuela. They include the island of Curacao. “ Continental Netherlands is the home of but a small portion .of the people under tho Netherlands flag. A recent census revealed that there were only 8,061,571 Netherlander in tho homeland, while the population of the colonial possessions was nearly eight

times larger. Java, with 41,719,524 inhabitants, is tho world’s most thickly populated land area—an average of 821 peopffi to the square mile. And still there is room on Java for many active and extinct volcanoes, 3,368 miles of railroads, about 30,000 miles of highways, and nearly 2,000,000 acres of teak forests. “ Nearly all tho islands of Netherland India lie near the equator and are blanketed with luxuriant tropical vegetation and fertile soil. Most of the natives arc Moslems. They are accustomed to hard woi’k and produce sufficient food lor themselves. _ “In Java, despite the thick population, the teeming millions support themselves and produce enough sugar to make the island the second largest of the sugar exporters. In 1931 the island sent nearly 3,000,000 tons of sugar into commercial channels. It also produces about 40,000,000 barrels of oil annually, and has an annual exportable surplus of rice, coffee, ten, cocoa, indigo, spices, tobacco, rubber, copra, and tin. “ Surinam, like Java, is a producer of sugar, cocoa, rice, and rubber, while bananas and bauxite also are important products It is a forest-covered region* the coastal'zone of .which is .tho

only portion settled extensively by white men. ,

“ The chief industry of the Curacao colony is oil refining, although the sis islands, Bonifacej Aruba, St. Eustatias, Saba, and a portion of St. Martins, are producers of maize, dulse, cattle, salt, and phosphates. In 1930 theso 430 square miles of islands exported ill--000,000 worth of commodities to the United States alone, while Uncle Sam sold them goods worth £2,500,000. “ The present colonial empire of *,he Notherland dates back only to 1602, when the Government created the East India Company. The company acquired now territory in the East trom time to time and governed it until 1798, when it was turned over to the mother country.

“ Surinam was acquired by the Peace of Breda in 1667, when England traded the region for the colony of New Netherlands in North America, Since that treaty, England has retaken possession twice—.l799 to 1802 and 1804 to 1816.'’