Editing Dutch New Guinea (section)

===Homeland for the Eurasians===
The group that was most interested in New Guinea before the war were the Eurasians or [[Indo people]]. Before the war, some 150,000 to 200,000 Eurasians were living in the Netherlands Indies. They were of mixed European and Indonesian descent and identified with the Netherlands and the Dutch way of life. In the colonial society of the Netherlands Indies, they held a higher social status than indigenous [[Native Indonesians|Indonesians]] ("''[[Native Indonesians|inlanders]]''"). They were mostly employed as office workers. As the educational level of indigenous Indonesians was on the rise, more and more Indonesians got jobs previously held by Eurasians. These had no other means of making a living, because, as Europeans, they were forbidden to buy land on [[Java]]. This situation caused mental and economic problems to the Eurasians. In 1923, the first plan to designate New Guinea as a settlement territory for Eurasians was devised. In 1926, a separate ''Vereniging tot Kolonisatie van Nieuw-Guinea'' (Association for the Settlement of New Guinea) was founded. In 1930, it was followed by the ''Stichting Immigratie Kolonisatie Nieuw-Guinea'' (Foundation Immigration and Settlement New Guinea). These organisations regarded New Guinea as an untouched, almost empty land that could serve as a homeland to the sidelined Eurasians, a kind of tropical Holland, where Eurasians could create an existence.

These associations succeeded in sending settlers to New Guinea and lobbied successfully for the establishment of a government agency to subsidise these initiatives (in 1938). However, most settlements ended in failure because of the harsh climate and natural conditions, and because of the fact the settlers, previously office workers, were not skilled in agriculture. The number of settlers remained small. In the Netherlands proper, some organisations existed that promoted a kind of "tropical Holland" in New Guinea, but they were rather marginal. They were linked to the [[National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands|NSB]] party and other [[fascist]] organisations.