Great Britain has ceased to permit Dutch commercial messages to
be transmitted by cables under British controL This privilege has been withdrawn from Holland because the Dutch Government persist, in spite of our repeated remonstrances, in affording the enemy every facility for sending sand and gravel from Germany by the Dutch canals to Belgium. The Dutch Government profess to believe that the sand and gravel are intended for ordinary civil purposes. The truth is that Belgium supplies all 'the materials required for repairing her roads, and that the Germans axe -using their sand and-gravel for the concrete " piltboxes " of which' their new defensive lines are oomposed. Holland is, in fact, actively assisting the enemy by permitting this very• considerable traffic in " pill-box " gravel. She is, of course, at liberty to help Germany il she pleases, but we are equally free to retaliate upon her as we are doing. Great Britain has, rightly enough, handled the Dutch very gently. But there were limits to our forbearance, and-these limits have now-been paused.
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