Raemaekers knows far more about the real feelings of his own countrymen
than a foreigner can do. We have seen that the Dutch people are full of
sympathy for the Belgian refugees, and that they have helped them with
great generosity. English fugitives from the war zone have also been
kindly treated in Holland. But from what I have heard myself, I fear
that there are many Dutchmen who do not realise that the existence of
their country as an independent nation is bound up with the success of
the Allies.
All the corrupt and malign influences which Germany has been sedulously
and treacherously exercising in neutral countries have been exerted in
their worst forms in Holland. The country is honeycombed with German
intrigues, and half-strangled in a network of commercial interests and
obligations. The Press is practically not free, and a numbing sense of
terror is spread over the population.
In the long run the fate of Belgium, terrible as it has been, may be
preferable to that of Holland, unless the countrymen of De Reuter and
Van Tromp have the resolution to strike a blow for their honour and
freedom, while there is yet time. They are in danger of becoming the
vassals of a Power which has no more sympathy with the ideals of a free
commonwealth than Philip II., and which has shown that it can surpass
the Duke of Alva in cruelty.
W. R. INGE
_Dean of St. Paul’s_
[Illustration: HOLLAND TO BELGIUM
“Outwardly, I must be neutral; inwardly, I am full of pity and
sympathy.”]