This Day in History: 16 February 1960
On 16 February 1960, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs J.M.A.H Luns was asked by Johannesburg-based Dutch Immigration Committee to cease what they call "irresponsible" utterances against the Union's apartheid laws and first to see that Holland "casts the beam out of its own eye."
In a letter to Luns the committee wrote that South Africa gives a better home to thousands of Hollanders as compared to the Dutch government.
The committee wanted to know from Luns what the Dutch would do if South Africa was to get up in United Nations and condemned Holland for repressing the national wishes of the Ambonesians.
Luns was in his position from 1952 to1971, making him the record office holder among Foreign Ministers in Europe since World War II. In 1971 Luns became the Secretary General of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), leaving the post in 1984