A BACKGROUND OF THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 234, 1 July 1939, Page 9

A BACKGROUND OF THE NEWS

Holland Makes Ready

Throughout the present year Holland has-been making extensive additions to , her various forms of national defence. It is reported from Amsterdam that a supplementary defence Budget of

£4,000,000 has been introduced in the Netherlands Parliament, which means that the total defence expenditure for 1039 is now more than £40,000,000. , Holland's system of military service is partly voluntary, partly compulsory, but it is provided that every citizen is liable to personal service between the ages of 19, and 40. Both her normal standing army of 500,000 men and her navy of Cd,ooo tons (mostly small vessels for coastal defence and patrol work) are being greatly increased this year, which accounts for portion of the additional expenditure. So far as the navy is concerned, special attention is being paid to equipping the service • with many super-speed patrol boats, lightly armed, but capable of extraordinarily rapid action on the hit-run-and-hit-again principle. These boats arc being built for Holland by British firms, who are also under contract to the British Admiralty for a similar class of vessel. Fortresses And Dykes Another large portion of Holland’s defence .expenditure is on a special scheme of frontier protection, similar in some respects to those adopted'by Belgium and Denmark, but including many unique features. Chief among these is what is known as the “cement guerrilla” system—a multitude of midget forts scattered over a wide ribbon of frontier territory. The idea is that an invading enemy, instead of being able to concentrate its offensive and destructive, power on a few large fortresses, would encounter —often unexpectedly—a host of small ones, many of which could be destroyed without in the least affecting the efficiency of the rest. Then there are the Dutch water defences—the dykes. The use of these by Holland is traditional, but they remain as formidable today as when they were first employed to hamper the movements bf advancing hostile forces. In the last year the dyke system on the borderlands has been .vastly extended; and the frugal Dutch administrators have the comforting thought that, in addition to their military value, these waterways have great advantages in peace time. Indeed, they are part of the normal public works activities of the nation. Rumania Also Prepared From Rumania, too, comes news of extraordinary military preparations in readiness for Europe's danger period—the summer-months. The Premier, M. Calinescu, has informed Parliament that £3,000,000 have been spent in four months on tho fortification of the Hungarian frontier, and in the same period no less than £38,000,000 has been spent on war materials. For a country which, comparatively, is by no means rich—a country of less than 20,000,000 inhabitants, 16,000,000 of which are rural dwellers, and most of these humble peasants—this is an enormous outlay. It will be used, no doubt, to complete Rumania’s “Maginot Line,” a vast protective system girdling the entire national territory, and described, when the work was inaugurated in the middle of 1937, as “a fence of stone and steel.” In addition there is the cost of modernizing Rumania’s army, and increasing it from the 1936 total of 180,060 men in uniform. Premier With One Eye

M. Calinescu, Premier of Rumania, whose photograph appeared on yesterday’s cable page, wears an opaque eyeglass, which, but for his jolly smile, would give him a somewhat piratical appearance. Actually the black monocle covers an injury caused 40 years ago wheri the careless use of acid by a nurse while M. Calinescu was in hospital for treatment caused the loss of his sight. Rumania’s “Iron” Premier, as.he is called, succeeded to office on the death of Dr. Miron Cristea early in March. He was formerly Minister of the Inferior and general secretary of the Party of National Regeneration. London’s Guildhall

The Guildhall of the City of London, where the King was welcomed by the Lord Mayor and a distinguished gathering of commoners after his return last week from his visit to Canada and the United States, is one of the most interesting old buildings of the metropolis, and perhaps the most historic from a strictly civic point of view. It is difficult for a stranger to find the Guildhall unless he is accompanied by a competent guide. The average guide book is of little use, for the hall is half-hidden amid a nest of other larger buildings, and one might pass the entrance to its courtyard a dozen times without realizing that this was the famous meetingplace of the City Corporation and the

scene of innumerable splendid banquets. At one time the London County Council met at the Guildhall, but in recent decades the Corporation has retained it more or less exclusively. The interior of the hall is lofty, and rich with aged oaken beams and carved panels. The atmosphere is more reminiscent of a church than of a business and banqueting hall, for there are stained glass windows, the lighting is dim, and the

place is quiet and hallowed with tradi- ' tion. Two huge and grotesque carved heads, like the figureheads of ships, gaze down from the shadowed walls. These are Gog and Magog, replicas of two effigies destroyed in the Great Fire. The history and origin of the originals is not known with certainty, but they were believed to represent a race of giants that lived in ancient England. The Gog and M «Sog of today look silently down upon the modern giants—the magnates of London City—as they enjoy the fare of the famous Guildhall kitchens and pay homage to kingly visitors to their commercial realm. German Airman Shot Down Gdynia, where a German military aeroplane has been shot down by Polish coastal artillery, is a fortified port tucked into a corner of the Polish Corridor, just outside the boundary of the Free City of Danzig. Actually, it is only 12 miles from the city itself. It j s also a Polish naval base. During the struggle with Soviet Russia in 1920. the Poles were unable to use Danzig for either naval or military purposes, and this led them to build their own. port. Thus Gdynia came intoXbeiiig. It is of considerable potential strategic importance. for, in the event of Poland be- ! „ debarred from the use of Danzig. . .7 continuing to hold the Corridor, the new port would be invaluable. It has hertliage for 30 large steamers, and can handle more than 2,500,000’ tons of forgo annually.