BIOGRAPHICAL MEMORANDA 



Was it surprising that, with the approaching termination of his first 

 term of office, Kluyver was doubtful of his future? An attractive pros- 

 pect in the Indies was the above-mentioned separate department in 

 Bandung, perhaps under his own direction. But it appeared that he 

 had not been forgotten in Holland. The Colonial Institute in Amster- 

 dam offered him the directorship of a department for scientific research 

 that was soon to be created and would be charged with the study of 

 problems in colonial technology. In conjunction with this position, 

 Van Iterson wanted to attach him also to the Technological University 

 in Delft as extra-ordinary professor of phytochemistry. And when Van 

 Iterson cabled him that the Government had agreed to the creation 

 of such a chair, and that the Delft faculty concurred with Van Iter- 

 son's nomination of its future occupant, Kluyver accepted the position 

 at the Colonial Institute. 



His first task was to make a survey of the coconut-fibre and copra- 

 yarn industry in Ceylon, and on the Malabar Coast, with a view to 

 determining whether such industries could be developed in Java. 



However, just when Kluyver's European future seemed assured, but 

 beforf starting his work with the Colonial Institute, an entirely differ- 

 ent possibility opened up. This was a position with the Oil Manufac- 

 turing Company Tnsulinde'. Up to that time vegetable oils had been 

 produced by purely empirical methods. The new director, M. H. 

 Damme, Mech. E., recognized nevertheless that, were the industry to 

 remain flourishing, scientific research would be imperative. Repeated- 

 ly he urged Kluyver to join this concern as chemical adviser, in which 

 position he would become director of a new, well-equipped laboratory 

 in Bandung, and under exceptionally favourable financial conditions. 

 The offer was so enticing that Kluyver finally accepted, after the Colo- 

 nial Institute had been found willing to cancel the previous arrange- 

 ment, though with the stipulation that the survey of the copra-fibre 

 industry would still be undertaken. 



During the Buitenzorg episode the Kluyvers had made friends with 

 several families, such as the Ruttens; Dr. L. Rutten was a geologist in 

 the employ of the B.P.M., and later became professor in Utrecht. 

 Others were Dr. Otto de Vries, Director of the Central Rubber Re- 

 search Station, and subsequently extra-ordinary professor at the Med- 

 ical University in Batavia; and H.J. Hellendoorn, Chem. E., also 

 associated with the Rubber Research Station. 



