As the Allies must have expected from the outset, the
Dutch Government have refused to hand over the ex-Kaiser for trial. In a Note presented on Friday week, they reminded the Allies that Holland had no part in the Peace Treaty and could not regard the surrender of the ex-Kaiser as an international duty. Her law and her traditions forbade her to deliver up "the vanquished in international conflicts," for whom Holland has always been a land of refuge. "The people of the Netherlands cannot betray the confidence of those who trusted themselves to their free institutions." Even if the ruling classes in Holland had not shown themselves definitely pro-German throughout the war, any Dutch Government would have returned a similar answer. As the Allies must have foreseen it from November, 1918, onwards, they arc presumably agreed on their next move, Holland's refusal cannot be allowed to end tho matter. Ws discuss the question elsewhere.
