Long war ended
NZPA-Reuter Hugh Town A 335-year long European war ended yesterday. Belatedly, Jonkheer Reinier Huydecoper, the Dutch Ambassador to Britain, presented the civic leaders of the Scilly Isles with a peace treaty ending their hostilities.
The Dutch and the Scillonians — all 1450 of them — have officially been enemies since 1651 when The Netherlands declared war in a tiff over piracy. The Scillys, which belong to Britain, are a chain of tiny islands — five inhabited, 30 others not — a few kilometres off the coast of Cornwall. Aside from its duration,
the Scilly-Dutch war was noted for the fact that not a shot was fired, nor a sword unsheathed, in anger. Moves to end the conflict were pressed by Roy Duncan, the 36-year-old chairman of the islands’ council.
“Dutch holidaymakers are amazed to learn they are at war with us,” he said. The Ambassador declared, “The islanders can at last rest easy in their beds.”
He apologised for the Dutch failure to notify the islanders that the war was over. He blamed the post office, for not having been invented then.
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Press, 19 April 1986, Page 10
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181Long war ended Press, 19 April 1986, Page 10
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