Ways of War and Peace

by Delia Austrian

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.