Dear George,

A plan to build 'a road to Batavia' doesn't unduly surprise me, as the
Netherlands - Indonesia contacts were ahead of the rest of the world in
other spheres. A radio link was established in 1920 between Kootwijk in
the Province of Gelderland and Bandung. From 1930, the a weekly KLM
flight between the two countries was the longest regularly scheduled
flight in the world  (Temminck Groll 2002 _The Dutch Overseas_, 102).

The 'corporate effort' (as opposed to 'government scheme') also rings
true!

But I've not come across this plan (20th century relations are not
outside my field of interest, but I've been concentrating on 16th to
18th centuries).

With best wishes to all,

Pat




In message <[log in to unmask]>, Automatic digest processor
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Anyway, I read that apparently there was a large corporate effort in the
>Netherlands to build a "road to Batavia" to the island of Java, in the
>Netherlands East Indies. almost a slogan if you will. I am pretty sure it
>was going to be a real road, though may have ended up symbolically
>representing it never built.

--
Pat Reynolds
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   "It might look a bit messy now,
                    but just you come back in 500 years time"
   (T. Pratchett)