HOLLAND AND GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 January 1916, Page 5

HOLLAND AND GERMANY.

HANDS IN GOLDEN POCKETS. DUTCH PAPERS SPEAK OP "SHAMELES 0 " Remarkable allegations of favoring .the Germans and failing to preserve neutrality are levelled at the Netherlands Government by the Dutch journals, the Avondpost and the Telegraaf. The Avondpo9t frames the .following indictment:— '•The Netherlands Government delays the dispatch of telegrams advising England that airships, about to bombard English towns, have flown over Dutch territory. "Holland intercepts all information, direct or indirect, destined to acquaint England with the movements of German troops. "Holland receives from Germany messages of thanks for the aid given to German airmen who are wrecked in tho North Sea." The Avondpost adds that it does not doubt that 'the Dutch Government will defend the neutrality of the Netherlands, but fails to understand why the Government should allow German airships to fly over the country, while it docs not permit England io be informed of these flights. ■; "HIDEOUS SPECTACLE" The Telegraaf bluntly ' w ' ***3' Dutch' Government of complicity witn Germany. "A reign of terror," it says, "prevails in Belgium, and the Dutch people look 011 at the hideous spectacle, their hands folded over pockets filled with gold. A few years ago a cordial friendship existed between Belgium and Holland. Yet j at this moment we allow our sister to be throttled.

"The times have palsed wlien a "people urged by a noble and humane impulse went forth to battle, and it would therefore bo vain to expect such idealism ou the part of the Dutch nation, which is enriching itself by tho war. "There is one thing, however, which we insist on with all tho force and energy "we are capable of, arid that i 3 that the Government of this nation of tradesmen, which has abandoned itself utterly to a shameless contraband traffic, should maintain the strictest neutrality. "Has the Netherlands Government already arrived at this point that all its Ministers should blindly obey its scandalously pro-German Premier! "We have actually lived to see the day when a Dutch Government orders the arrest of the Dutch agent of an English factory, when a search is made in his house, and when our workmen are prevented from working in this factory, whereas for months past German agents by fthe hundred carry on their business of every description here." , - %.