17 OCTOBER 1925, Page 15

CORRESPONDENCE

A LETTER FROM THE HAGUE

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

Sut,—For some time after the slump of 1921 the Dutch were more or less in sackcloth and ashes. The Government, after the 1918 scare of Bolshevism (be it noted that it could never in any circumstances have been anything but a very weak brew of that weed) had given way to a tendency to extend State-interference in all sorts of things collectively called " social measures " ; and as these entailed an enormous increase in staff and expense it was difficult for some years to balance the budget. In Holland and in the East Indian Colonies, where official extravagance had also assumed extreme proportions, loans in the United States had to be resorted to, and there was no lack of scare-mongers who urged the export of the gold reserve of the Netherlands Bank in Amsterdam so as to " safeguard the guilder."

Fortunately, the Board of the bank stolidly clung to the gold reserve at the time, and to-day the bank's position is stronger than ever, its gold reserve still being over three times as large as before the War. So, what with a very good financial reputation and timely credit operations in the United States, the exchange value of the guilder was kept up. M. Colyn, the present Minister-President and Minister of Finance, as he was in the previous Cabinet, succeeded in effecting very considerable economies, introduced a few new taxes, raised some of the import duties, and now the budget balances and everybody feels that we are out of the wood, although the shipping companies and several branches of industry are still in a more or less precarious position.

Of course, we have our reformers, who would have us say good-bye to the gold standard, so as to manipulate our exchange and stimulate exports. But they form a very small minority. It is generally felt that although the gold standard is not an ideal standard, yet it is the next best thing to that. Moreover, since what might be called the " State-party " in the family of nations—viz., Great Britain and the United States—have kept to or returned to the gold standard, we may feel that we are on the safe side. It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good. So the creditors may be said to be rather better off than the debtors. But on the other hand we see the result when the position is reversed, as it has been in Germany and to a lesser extent in France. In Germany, Dr. Curtius, of Baden, recently declared Germany's economic position to be " simply hopeless." Unless France and Germany come to some terms at Locarno, under the auspices, let us hope, of Great Britain, they risk sinking deeper and deeper into the financial morass. If, as seems probable, they feel convinced that such would be their fate if no agreement were reached, there would appear a very good prospect of improvement all round.

Well, the Dutch have got rid of their sackcloth and ashes. At the Amsterdam Bourse a fresh " boom " has set in, owing, of course, ta the rather spectacular rise in rubber. Last year sugar and tobacco did very good service in alleviating some of the evil consequences of the slump of four years ago, but now rubber takes the lead. The Dutch have always had a passion for dabbling in shares at the Amsterdam Bourse, and so quite a large number of people are in possession of rubber shares, many merchants have already made or regained fortunes, and people who have no rubber shares are looked upon, more or less, as downright idiots. Hence, they make a rush for the shares at the Bourse every day, and up go the prices of the shares. Oil, sugar, tobacco and rubber are to us what pepper and spices were to the shareholders of the Dutch East India Company. For the present even oil and the shares of the Royal Dutch are more or less put into the shade by rubber. Everybody talks of rubber ; we are steeped in a kind of mental latex from morning till night. Well, we have always been a nation of merchants, of shopkeepers if you will ; and, all things considered, we have not done so badly. We have, of course, lost hundreds of millions in Russian, German, Austrian, Turkish and other bonds. There is many an old lady who has had to dismiss two of her three servants, many an old gentleman who has had to give up his glass of claret at dinner. But the fate of old people is soon forgotten, and they

disappear, one by one, quietly from the scene. The waters of life soon cover up the tragedy of their Old age.

We have anew Cabinet, a second or a third edition of the old one, inasmuch as it represents the majority in the Chamber and hence is made up of a combination of Roman Catholics and Protestants. The majority occupy 54 seats of the total of 100, and they will have to cope with very keen oppo- sition from the Socialists, who are the strongest party after the Roman Catholics. Some people hold, and perhaps they are right, that the Socialists ought 'to have had one or twii seats in the Cabinet.

The Queen, I believe, is at Scheveningen in her villa, with Prince Henry and Princess Juliana. Jonkheer Van Kerne- beck has left his town residence, which belongs to the Queen and which is to be the palace of Princess Juliana. The question of her marriage will come up before long. She will be seventeen next April. The position of a Prince Consort is somewhat difficult, but the Princess has a way with her : she has humour. Amongst her mother's chief characteristics is an exceedingly correct and somewhat mid-Victorian respectability. She has a keen sense of business, both governmental and otherwise, and owing to her having inherited the fortunes of her father and other relatives, she is said to be very wealthy. Financially, therefore, the prospects of the Heir-Apparent are by no means negligible. Whether Queen Wilhelmina will look for a suitable husband for her beloved daughter across our eastern frontiers, or across the North Sea or the Baltic, is still a matter of conjecture. And the Princess herself too will have to be consulted.

Canning wrote that the fault of the Dutch was " giving too little and asking too much," but the national character has changed a good deal. In the matter of the proposed new Treaty with Belgium, to replace the 1839 and subsequent Treaties, the Dutch give everything and receive nothing in return. That, at least, is what the antagonists of the Treaty say. In any case a good understanding with Belgium is felt to be extremely desirable, and since the same feelings seem to prevail in Belgium, the prospects of a friendly understanding on somewhat less onerous terms to Holland ought to be decidedly good.

The International Court of Justice at The Hague will shortly have to occupy itself with the interpretation of the Lausanne Treaty in connexion with the Mosul question. The assertion put forward by the International Commission which went out to Mosul last winter to the effect that Mosul, " from the legal point of view, must be regarded as an integral part of Turkey until that Power renounces her rights," is looked upon here by those best able to judge as entirely uncalled for and, moreover, absurd ; since the mere fact that Turkey agreed to submit the decision to the Council amounts a priori to renouncing sovereign legal rights ; and even if this were not the case the Commission had no business to make a state- ment for which it was never asked. The calm, sedate, and rather old-world atmosphere of The Hague would seem well suited to the Court's work.

For the moment the Locamo Conference puts everything else in the shade, for Holland's security also will be directly or indirectly affected by its outcome. So far Holland does not appear to have played any part in the matter. It would be impossible, of course, for Holland to join in any Pact directed against Germany.

This winter we shall hear something about the British view of international affairs generally, for Dean Inge and Mr. Wickham Steed have accepted the invitation of the Holland- England Society to deliver lectures at The Hague and else-