HOLLAND AND THE WAR

New Zealand Tablet, 13 May 1915, Page 47

HOLLAND AND THE WAR

Barring actual fighting and its concomitant horrors, Holland, though strictly neutral, is receiving its full share of the ill effects of the war. The forced mobilisation of her army has virtually paralysed all of her industries. Some two hundred and fifty thousand of her workers and bread-winners had to be called to the colors for the purpose of protecting the country's neutrality at the border lines (says a correspondent of America). Her commerce, which in normal times greatly exceeds in volume that of much larger countries, has likewise been crippled badly. The numerous restrictions put in force by some of the belligerents principally account for this. Add thereto the hundreds of thousands of Belgian refugees that have sought safety across her frontier, and it is easy to realise the serious plight in which both the Government and the Nation find themselves. The refugee problem is by no means the least perplexing. At the time of the fall of Antwerp fully 800,000 Belgians streamed across the border. Scarcely a town or hamlet within the confines of the kingdom that did not receive its quota of fugitives to be cared for. Such, indeed, was the influx that great cities like Rotterdam had to announce publicly their inability to add a single stranger to the many thousands already crowded within their walls. In some of thelarger border towns as, for instance, Roozendael and Bcrgenup Zoom, the numbers of refugees for several weeks exceeded twice and Three Times the Normal Number of Permanent Residents. The Belgians that came over to Holland, be it said, mostly belonged to the poorer class, the more well-to-do having sought refuge in England and France. Nevertheless, Holland is acquitting herself nobly of the gigantic task the fortunes of war have unexpectedly thrust upon her. Everywhere the war victims have been received with open arms and are being treated in a most generous manner. Not the least conspicuous part in this general display of hospitality lias been taken by the Dutch Catholics. Seminaries, colleges, schools, orphan asylums and hospitals everywhere threw wide their doors to the sorely stricken thousands. The numerous foreign mission houses and monasteries of the two mainly Catholic Provinces of North Brabant, and Limburg in particular, distinguished themselves by their open-handed hospitality. Their action has been such as to draw forth from the liberal press of the country the most unqualified encomiums of praise and admiration. This is all the more striking since ordinarily this same press has nothing but words of sneering contempt for the Religious Orders. About six months ago the admission into Holland of a number of Spanish Religious was objected to by one of the leading liberal daily papers, the reason adduced being that these Friars belonged to a class to be looked upon as 'suspicious characters.' But since then this same paper has been constrained to acknowledge the Friars' usefulness, and in its meed of praise for the conduct of the Religious Orders in the present emergency, it goes so far as to deprecate the very suggestion raised in some quarters of including a mortmain tax among the relief measures in behalf of the national exchequer. And this mortmain tax has ever been one of the pet liberal theories! As to the refugees themselves, the warm reception given them everywhere has greatly comforted them in their present misfortune. They are exceedingly grateful to their Dutch brethren, and the natural tie of race and,*,, language between Holland and Flanders has undoubtedly been strengthened. In a lengthy letter to the Archbishop of Utrecht, his Eminence, Cardinal Mercier of Malines, has expressed his own abounding gratitude and that of his dear Belgium for The Cordial and Brotherly Treatment shown them by the Catholics of Holland in particular, and by the Dutch Government;and public in general. At the same time the prevailing extraordinary conditions are exercising a considerable strain on the country's finances. The army alone calls for nearly a

million gulden extra expense a day, while the'support of the refugees requires huge sums of money in addition. Both England and Franco have offered to help the Dutch Government to support the Belgian refugees, but the latter has positively refused to accept any aid cither from foreign Governments or* from foreign organisations, deeming such acceptance incompatible with the national honor. To meet these extraordinary calls the Government of Holland has recently issued a war loan oi two hundred and fifty million gulden (£20,0(10,000)? which will tide over the the-financial difficulties until the beginning of summer. With regard to the economic situation in Holland, the Government is confronted with further difficulties owing to the embargo on foodstuffs. _ These are now being imported into Holland exclusively through the agency of its general Government whose supply of wheat is kept so limited that black bread at present constitutes the main diet both of rich and poor. The Dutch Government naturally has protested against these restrictions. 1 As reflecting the standard and enterprise of Hol17^nd ’ s numerous Catholic daily papers, two among them, De L V d of Amsterdam and-Ac M and) ode of Rotterdam, have lately attained international recognition as purveyors of war news. Both these papers are represented in the war zone by their own correspondents, whose dispatches are frequently reproduced by the Associated Press. De Mamhode a week or two ago was referred to as receiving news from far-away Przemysl by carrier pigeon via Berlin to Rotterdam. "