WHAT THE QUEEN OF HOLLAND IS DOING TO PRESERVE PEACE
If you were only in Holland for a few days you would find out that Wilhelmina is the best ruler in Europe and one of the ablest stateswomen. No sooner had Europe gone to war than she had her government give orders for mobilization. Little Holland was the first after the declaration of war to declare neutrality, and they have kept their faith in not giving aid nor showing any partiality to either side. This has been no small task, for England has been pressing her on one side to join the allies and Germany would like to use her in a material way, especially in the bringing in of food supplies. England has time and again made charges that she was assisting Germany in spite of her neutrality. On the other hand England has several times seized food supplies that belonged to Holland, saying that she was importing them to send them on to Germany.
In spite of these difficulties, such as seizing Dutch boats, because they carried Germans and Austrians going home to fight for their country, the Queen of Holland, backed by her country, has shown an abundance of common sense.
At a recent opening of Parliament she addressed her people, saying she hoped she could keep perfect neutrality. This they would do unless they were forced into the war, for both she and her people wanted peace more than anything else in the world.
In order to maintain this peace in an honorable way, she, sided by her ministers, has done everything in her power to make a bold stand should one or the other of the nations cross the boundary.
When in Holland a few weeks ago, I had the good fortune to cross one of the Dutch frontiers. The boundary was well guarded with men to see that none of the marching men nor contraband of war should be carried across the border.
The entire standing army and a large part of the reserves, nearly a hundred thousand men in all, are scattered between the cities and the boundaries. It is said that she can call a much larger force to the front in case of actual warfare than she has at present. In nearly all the large cities, such as The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, I saw a large number of young men going through all kinds of military tactics. They were learning how to drill, how to fire, how to dig ditches and build impromptu forts in haste.
That Holland is determined to make a bold stand and fight for her rights if needed, is shown by the fact that she has mined her coast and dynamited her bridges so that she can cut her dams on short notice.
There was such a rumor the day we were at The Hague. It had been falsely rumored that the German Consul had been recalled that day and that the country would be flooded within twenty-four hours.
The Dutch took little credence of these wild rumors, and continued their business and went through their work of mobilizing in the same quiet, energetic way. In spite of their delicate position, there is not a country in Europe that seemed less interested in the war than this north country. The hotel-keepers were too busy looking after the welfare and comforts of tired Americans to take time to discuss war. The shopkeepers were too busy supplying the tourists who had any money left with old Dutch silver and delftware to worry about the war. While the steamship company were too occupied enlarging their boats with auxiliary cabins, getting extra crews and recalling their captains, who had already been sent to the front, to bother their heads about war scares. It may be a mere coincidence, still it is a strange one, that some of the persecuted forefathers fled from England and remained in Holland until they came to our America. It is just a little strange that an American gave such a handsome peace palace to the world, and it should find its place in Holland. It is no less strange that the Queen of Holland and her ministers have taken such an active part in all the peace movements. In the last few weeks they have been most energetic in succoring Americans who fled from Germany and Austria, and she has been most active in getting these refugees home.
As I saw the Queen of Holland leave her palace one afternoon in an automobile, the crowds waiting about her palace to greet her showed that she is near and dear to all her subjects. The fact that she was not surrounded by any soldiers or civil service men shows that she has nothing to fear from assassins. Every man in the crowd took off his hat as a mark of respect, while the women greeted her with shouts and the waving of handkerchiefs.
Though she is the third richest ruler in Europe, she refuses to indulge in any foolish extravagance. Her palace at The Hague is pretty, but simple, while she finds the one in Amsterdam too large and too expensive for common use. She spends a large part of her own private fortune for providing Creches, an old people's home. She is never so happy as when she finds among her people an energetic mother with a good-sized family. The one great unhappiness in Queen Wilhelmina's girlhood was that she wanted children and was deprived of having them. Her mother and friends say that she has grown ten years younger since she had her little daughter. She is the pride of her mother's heart, though the Queen makes every effort to see that she is not pampered by herself or her subjects.
Although Queen Wilhelmina is fonder of her home and more interested in the welfare of her subjects than she is of public life, she is a splendid stateswoman and diplomat.
She never signs any paper, whether it is important or unimportant, without carefully studying its contents. There is little about the history of her people or her kingdom that she does not know, for she believes much of her ability as a ruler depends on her knowledge of the past history of her country. She is very proud of her own ancestors and her people, because she says that they have been brave at sea and at home and have always aimed to play fair. She has not been blind to the fact that her neighbor, England, has been jealous of some of her colonies, especially of Java. But she does not believe in worrying about that fact.
On the other hand, she is also aware that in the past Germany dreamed of some day uniting Holland to her own territory, if not by conquest by the coming of a German heir. The Queen smiles when she thinks of the Dutch people becoming English or Germans, for she says they are too fond of flowers, windmills, cows and meadows to be anything but good Dutch people. The Queen of Holland realizes that her people are divided in their feeling in this war. The peasants and the fisherfolk feel that they have more to gain by being friends of England, and they are strong pro-English in their feeling. The aristocratic party sympathizes with Germany, either because they have large business interests in Germany or they are related by inter-marriage. Though the Queen of Holland is married to a German prince, her attitude is one of neutrality in thought and action. Whenever any of her politicians or friends try to get her frank opinion she changes the subject by talking of home affairs, such as "How is your lovely wife and your family?" Because she is interested in the things nearest to her country and to her heart, she develops the trades of her people instead of spending their money for building great bulwarks of defense against the enemy that may want to devour her. She places more confidence in the men of her country and their loyalty, aided by her dams and dykes, than in a large costly army and navy.