WINDMILLS OF HOLLAND.

Shannon News, 10 July 1925, Page 4

WINDMILLS OF HOLLAND.

DANGER OF DISAPPEARING NATIONAL RESCUE MOVEMENT Every traveller who has been to Holland will agree that the most charming and picturesque feature of that quaint country is the sight of the windmills against the skyline, scores and scores of them, spinning in the breeze. Great is the service they have done throughout the brave and stormy history of the Dutch people. These windwills were not merely servants of agriculture, grinding corn for the daily bread of the nation. They were soldiers in that most gallant fighting against the encroaching sea which Holland has waged throughout the centuries, and always with the honours of victory nobly won. One can understand, therefore, with what dismay many Dutch men and women have realised that, owing to the developement of electrical machinery for drainago, the mills are in danger of disappearing. One after another, as their work was taken over by the new appliances, the windmillls began to disappear and factories and warehouses stood in their place. Now a society calling itself “Holland’s Mills," composed of leading citizens from all parts of the kingdom, has stepped in and organised public opinion against the further destruction of what is so worth preserving. It is certain that most of the old Windmills will be sav&d. In Rotterdam an ancient windmill dating from the days of the great struggle against Spain has, been left undisturbed in the middle of the street.

A distinguished scientist from the University of Leyden has come forward to champion the windmill from the practical side pointing out that the mills can easily be converted for producing electric power by water and that if, through war or any other disturbance, or lack of coal supply, Holland should find it impossible to keep her new electric machinery supplied with fuel, the old windmills would come back into their own, and save their country once again as they have done so often in the past.