Queen Juliana Replies To Critics

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28161, 27 December 1956, Page 3

Queen Juliana Replies To Critics

(N.Z. Press Association— Copyright)

THE HAGUE. December 25. Queen Juliana of the Netherlands today criticised people who ••try to drive a wedge between a man and a woman bound by deep-rooted feelings of unity.”

In an apparent reference to foreign press reports, earlier this year of an alleged rift between the Queen and her husband, prince Bernhard, she spoke in her Christmas broadcast of “people who try to attack others by all kinds of devious means.” In a series of rhetorical questions, the Queen asked what their motives could be and why their approach was not more direct. She asked her listeners: “Have I not the right to try to be mvjelf?”

Referring to Hungary, Queen Juliana said: “When a nation is fighting, against all reasonable hope, for the right to be itself. 8 s the Hungarian people are doing now, something great is being accomplished. “Whenever v>e are up against lethargy, and lack of understanding. let us keep in mind that the light will always conquer the darkness which surrounds us.” Queen Juliana continued: “The ftronger the light which is our goal, the worse seems the contact with darkness, but the jtrongest power will be victorious.

“Let us fully appreciate the good we experience at the hands of our fellow men. There is much spontaneous feeling and honest thinking. “I have experienced this and

tudl Th l d me Wlth dee P Sratithan tj? n ° Bfeater sorrow ns their eVII and “justice takmg tneir course. “Why, for instance, do somp mea P n| ‘Tna* a ?s rson by devious Sent’ Wh d Y !th untrue statetrv to H V - hy ’ for lnstanc e. do they man and Ve a wedge between a Sdn t d / woman, attempting in 1X 4“°? a d eePly-rooted SL u Whs 'k a so - do th ey attack ing at’*’' 3 " the ° ne they are aim "

Queen Juliana continued: “Can they not write directly when they objections to the personal attitude of somebody whom they trunk ought to be informed of these objections? This, too, I have experienced. What possesses such people? What are their motives? But have not I, too, the right to try to be myself?

“Let us in these dark times come together as conscious people who clearly feel what matters and what does not.” Queen Juliana ended her message with an appeal to her people to be “God’s collaborators.”