Summary

Letter with envelope from Hans Hukom in Jakarta, Indonesia to Richard and Edith Winnett in Gundagai, New South Wales, dated 14 October, 1970. He thanks them for their efforts including recently sending him an application form for employment with Mount Isa Mines Limited. He attaches a five-page typed paper he had prepared for Edith so she could give an address to the Country Women's Association, about Indonesia.

On pages four and five of this attached letter Hans says, among other things, that his grandmother was white with blue eyes and that his father was an inspector of schools in South Moluccas. Hans says he went to the best Dutch school in Ambon from age seven. After elementary and secondary school he went to study in Surabaya at a Dutch Commercial School. Then in 1955 he studied bookkeeping and worked in an English firm, Maclaine, Watson and Co. NV. After the confrontation with Malaysia, he had to change jobs because all the English firms were taken over by the Government. This letter probably relates to postcard HT57042 where Hans refers to putting together this information for Edith.

This is one of a collection of 40 documents and four photographs relating to the unsuccessful attempts by Hans Hukom, an Indonesian citizen, to migrate to Australia between 1968 and 1972.

Significance

Statement of Historical Significance:
Hans Hukom's documents provide an insight, at times frustrating and poignant, into one person's attempts to seek approval to immigrate, the vagaries of bureaucracy, and the likely influence of the White Australia policy in his ultimate lack of success, still officially in force at that time.

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