The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14th, 1914. HOLLAND'S POSITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 120, 14 October 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14th, 1914. HOLLAND'S POSITION.

The Kaiser, through his satellites, has not been long in showing the cloven hoof to Holland. General von der Goltz, the German Military Governor of Belgium, has. we read, sent a mission to Holland with a view to securing foodstud's for I'russels. The Dutch have declined, the request. They are apprehensive of an attack, and, according to one Press correspondent, they are hastily erecting barricades and digging trendies, etc., at Flushing, a seaport' which the Germans have had their eyes upon for years. Xo one with any knowledge of the gentle ways of the Germans will be surprised to, hear of their invading Holland. Indeed, one will be surprised if they respect the right and integrity of the Dutch, after their shameful behaviour in Belgium, which lies torn and bleeding under their iron heel. The Dutch never did have much confidence in the bona fides of their ruthless neighbor, and the little they did possess has been shattered by the treatment of their neighbors and the bombardment of the great seaport town of Belgium. They have made, according to English Tress correspondents, extraordinary preparations to defend the country. Still more extraordinary is the care that lias up to the present been taken not to afford Germany any provocation. It is significant that Holland, in mobilising her forces—they have been mobilised from the momcjjt the Germans made their cowardly attack upon peaceful, unpretentious, little Belgium—-has allowed the husband of Holland'* queen, a German prince, no more responsible task than the command of the Dutch Bed Cross. He went to the Netherlands with the reputation of being a distinguished German soldier, but when war broke out was carefully denied work which Dutchmen should think should be performed by lovers of their own ; counItry. The desperate intrigues of the Germans to curry favor with the Dutch has been manifested in another striking form A Press correspondent gives particulars:—"With the American refugees who passed through here came a number of loud-tongued but otherwise mysterious individuals who seemed to have nothing to do but praise Germany. All that these interesting parasites could say was that the Teutons were the finest people they had ever met, and that beforo a year had passed the flag of Germany would be floating over the world. I challenged one of the Kaiser's trumpeters to an explanation; and before a hundred words had been exchanged discovered that he wa s a German, not a German-American, who had developed tho trick of speaking English with a twang. Ho did not leave "by the' boat for America, and I found that, despite its being a time of war, he had recently been through Paris, Berlin, Cologne, and Brussels. From what I afterwards learned I have every reason to belicvo h'i is professionally employed as a spy by the Germans. There are many such people now spread over Holland, industriously making mischief between the Dutch and tho British and Belgians. To such methods is Germany now reduced." \ He-Hand's army, like Belgium's, is a very small one, numbering but 200,000 on a war footing; but no doubt it could be doubled by levies. She ha 3 overseas forces of 37,000 men in the Dutch East Indies, but these could not be reckoned upon, for the blow will be struck quickly if Germany is bent on attack. By herself, Holland coud do little against the overwhelming forces the enemy could bring to bear, but the Dutch have one protection—the dykes, which they are prepared to open, in the last emergency, and Hood the country. By this means the Germans would be thwarted, but it would entail incalculable- loss, hardship, and suffering on the Dutch themselves. But they would not hesitate to make tho sacrifice rather than be, subjected to tho same, treatment that has been meted out to their unfortunate neighbors.