A QUEEN WITH A MIND OF HER OWN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 70, 25 October 1940, Page 5

A QUEEN WITH A MIND OF HER OWN

(By

Dutchy

HREE incidents may be quoted to give some indication of the character of Queen Wilhelmina of Holland, now a refugee in England, and one of the remarkable women in the world by any reasonable test. At the age of ten, when her father died and she made her first appearance as Queen on the balcony of the Royal Palace at Amsterdam, the cheering throng amazed her: "Mamma," she asked, "do all those people belong to me?" "No," answered her mother, the Regent, Queen Emma, "you belong to all those people." The second incident occurred in 1918 when the German Kaiser fled to Holland for safety, after he had abdicated. The Allies wished to try him before an International Court of Justice, Queen Wilhelmina summoned the Allied Ambassadors and gave them a lecture on a neutral country’s rights to give refuge to a refugee. Lastly comes the incident which preceded her daughter's marriage to a German Prince. By Hitler’s orders, the passports of all German bridesmaids and guests were confiscated. Queen Wilhelmina did not hesitate. In her own hand she wrote a personal letter to the German Dictator: "This is the marriage of my daughter to the man she loves, whom I have found worthy of that love. This is not the marriage of The Netherlands to Germany." The passports were returned. It was not the first sharp letter this vigorous woman had written to Hitler. Definite Character Those incidents are quoted to indicate that the Queen of Holland is a woman of definite character, with fearless beliefs in what is right and wrong. She is 60 years of age, and the 11th member of the House of Nassau to rule over the Empire of the Netherlands. Her father was 62 when he married, for a second time, a 20-year-old German Princess of a small State. Wilhelmina was the only child of that union, and the Salic Law was repealed so that she could ascend the Throne. She was crowned at the age of 18, and soon showed her Ministers that she was a young woman of spirit, for she refused to allow anyone to write her first public speech. A year later she amazed the world when she offered her palace at The Hague as a meeting place for the first International Peace Conference. Since she ascended the Throne, Queen Wilhelmina has led a strict and disciplined life, demanding the same qualities, in their daily habits, from those around her. As a young woman, she loved hunting, and found it excellent exercise. As she grew older, she gave up riding and took to the bicycle, daily pedalling out of the Palace yard through the same gate as that used by the tradesmen, In

winter she went skating on the canals in company with her people. At 20 she married a German, Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, an officer in the Prussian Guards, with a taste for "life" It was not a happy marriage, but it endured for 33 years. The Prince Consort was not popular with the Dutch, whose esteem for their highly moral Queen increased with years. Wilhelmina, a faithful churchgoer, has always been extremely tolerant. Jew and Catholic receive as much consideration as the Dutch Calvinists. No Waste There was no wasteful expenditure at the Dutch Court. Queen Wilhelmina shunned extravagance as she shunned publicity, and stamped out gossip by moral example. Up every morning at 6 am., summer and winter, she made a practice of gardening in the Palace grounds before breakfast. Later hundreds of her subjects, pedalling to work

on their bicycles, could look up at the Palace windows and see their Queen at her sewing. The marriage of the Queen’s only daughter, Princess Juliana, heir to the Throne, caused a little heart-burning. Wilhelmina demanded that "any son-in-law should be possessed of three important qualities: Perfect health, Protestant faith, and Royal blood. Juliana discovered them herself in Prince Bernard of Lippe, one of those thousand German Royal people about whom the world never hears until they make a marriage of importance or are concerned in a scandal. Queen Wilhelmina was won over by the Prince’s charm, but when he began to indulge his taste in racing cars and cocktails, his mother-in-law put down her foot. Relations were cool until the birth of a daughter in 1938. During the 42 years Queen Withelmina has ruled over the Netherlands Empire she has been witness of its remarkable growth and increasing wealth, for that Empire is the third richest in the world. The population has increased by 3% millions; the national wealth,

because of manufacturing, even more. Amsterdam had become almost the most important international banking centre in the world; the modern Mamimon, so the

cynics say. Rotterdam had been transformed into the third largest port for the transhipment of merchandise in Europe; Amsterdam had also become the largest grain market on the Continent, and its diamond-cutting trade the equal of Antwerp. Before the occupation by Germany, Holland exported tiles and potteries, cheese, butter, and bulbs; Diesel engines, chemicals, radio and electrical appliances, and vast quantities of coffee and spices, Thrift and Shrewdness Bring a Fortune And in those 42 years Queen Wilhelmina’s own fortune has risen with her Empire’s. Her State allowance is comparatively small, but her investmentschiefly in her own Empire overseasprovide her with profits which make her probably the richest ruler in Europe. Oddly enough, Queen Wilhelmina has never visited her overseas EmpireCuracao, in the Caribbean Sea; Dutch Guiana in South America, and the Dutch East Indies, one of the richest archipelagoes in the world. What the future holds for this Empire and its refugee Queen no prophet will dare to foretell, but for future historians she will provide many a rich and colourful story, despite her piety, her thrift, and her stern morals.