Holland to Belgium
Raemaekersknows far more about the real feelings of his own countrymen than a foreigner can do. We have seen that the Dutch people are full of sympathy for the Belgian refugees, and that they have helped them with great generosity. English fugitives from the war zone have also been kindly treated in Holland. But from what I have heard myself, I fear that there are many Dutchmen who do not realise that the existence of their country as an independent nation is bound up with the success of the Allies.
All the corrupt and malign influences which Germany has been sedulously and treacherously exercising in neutral countries have been exerted in their worst forms in Holland. The country is honeycombed with German intrigues, and half-strangled in a network of commercial interests and obligations. The Press is practically not free, and a numbing sense of terror is spread over the population.
In the long run the fate of Belgium, terrible as it has been, may be preferable to that of Holland, unless the countrymen of De Reuter and Van Tromp have the resolution to strike a blow for their honour and freedom, while there is yet time. They are in danger of becoming the vassals of a Power which has no more sympathy with the ideals of a free commonwealth than Philip II., and which has shown that it can surpass the Duke of Alva in cruelty.
W. R. INGEDean of St. Paul’s
HOLLAND TO BELGIUM“Outwardly, I must be neutral; inwardly, I am full of pity and sympathy.”
HOLLAND TO BELGIUM“Outwardly, I must be neutral; inwardly, I am full of pity and sympathy.”
HOLLAND TO BELGIUM
“Outwardly, I must be neutral; inwardly, I am full of pity and sympathy.”