HOLLANDS' DANGER.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 July 1916, Page 10

HOLLANDS' DANGER.

AI.I.KCEI) CKRMAX l»IX)T. A Kuropean nirrpsjioiiili'iit of the Chicago Trilmne slates tliat Queen Wilhelmina and lier < iovernment liave reeently lieen apprised of an alleged plot, organised at Berlin, designed to embroil Holland in the present war. on tlie side o; (Jeiniany. against tlie I'ower.s ,of the Entente.

The recent scare in the -Netherlands, which created a sensation on this side o the Atlantic, and which pointed to an immediate entry of the Dutch in the international conllagration. is.said to liavi been brought about by the WollV .News Agency, a Berlin concern controlled and 'subsidised by the German (iovernment and which, it is alleged. Hooded the Xetherlands with stories to the effect that the Kntente was determined tc force, the Dutch into the war, either by means of an ultimatum demanding the immediate stoppage id' all exports iiito Germany or by a sudden armed descent oil the Dutch coast.

This alleged propaganda was designed to stir up popular feeling against th< Allies, until a point was reached when Germany, without fear of courting a declaration of war from The Hague (iovernment, could seize the Frisian islands and the llelder, as a precautionary meas lire against the "sinister plans" of Great Britain and France, while promising Holland an indemnity for their provisional occupation.

An important feature of tlu- allegeu conspiracy was to have consisted in a squadron of German warships penetratin«? the Tc.xel flat, under the pretext that they were being pnrsm-d by a superior Uritish naval force, and once through the narrow channel, refusing to disarm, thus still further increasing international complications.

Fortunately fur the Netherlands, tin? si-lu'ine niUcanied. thanks to the and Frem-li M-crct m»rvice obtaining an inkling thereof, and warning the ITajjuo (lovminicnt. Tin* Texel Oaf and all tin* other points along the coast of the Netherlands where Oonnan warmiirlit hope to penetrate into Dutch ii.land wat ers have been heavily mined.

The Dutch ha ve had it made quite clear to them, hy their own fSovernnient. and hy Clival llritaiu and France, that none of the Power- of the Entente entertain the -lightest design against Ifolland. Hiid that they contemplate nn armed de-cent upon the Dutch coast, and that thc(v never dreamed of liiakinp a demand for (lie -toppage by Holland o? all her exports into Germany.