HOLLAND'S DEFENCES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 995, 9 December 1910, Page 5

HOLLAND'S DEFENCES.

■NO HOSTILITY TO BRITAIN. Br Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright , . The Hague, December 7. Dr. Van Swinderen, Minister for Foreign Affairs, ' speaking in the Second Chamber, said the Fortificaiions Bill was inspired solely as a national duty of defence against any eventual menace to tho country's independence. The Minister added that Britain knew Holland's intentions were, in nowise hostile. :He was permitted to hope that the, heads of the State in Britain and France ivould shortly visit the Netherlands.

The Hague correspondent of the /Temps" stated in September that the most important Bill among those which have been brought in -by the Dutch Government recently is the law providing .£3,333,000 for the defence of the Dutcu coast, three-fifths, of this sum being set aside for tho improvement of tho existing forts and for the building of. new ones, and the remainder for the fleet. _The Bill was rather coldly received in Holland, where it was generally believea that neither the army nor the navy is strong, enough to resist foreign invasion. People weie asking whether the-new Bill was not tho - result of foreign pressure, and there was thought to bo a connection between the measures proposed and the summons tendered to the Dutch Government some time ago by the Kaiser. The Liberal organ "Vaderland'' observed that the Bill denoted a revolution in the Dutch system of defence. Hither-, to it was generally admitted that danger, was to bo feared rather .from the ease than from the west, whereas the Bill allowed it to be understood that' it was against England that Holland must above all be armed.

Tho "Vaderland" differed from this view, and held that instead of .£2,083,000 being spent on forts as; a safeguard in tho very improbable event of an English invasion, national defence would be better . assured by a good torpedo-boat ilotilla and a network of mines, and by the improvement of tho wholo lighting forces. Unliko forts, they could be used against an enemy either from the. east or west.