"THE COCKPIT OF EUROPE."

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 20, 25 January 1911, Page 6

"THE COCKPIT OF EUROPE."

The startling announcement was reported on the authority of the Paris Figaro yesterday- that in the ©vent of the Dutch Government proceeding with its declared intention to fortify Flushing, France, Russia, Britain, and Belgium will withdraw from The Hague Arbitration, Court. The statement ds not official, but it ie at any xate evidence of the very serious view, which' is taken in Paris of the position created by the action of the Dutch Government. The official statement on the subject which was reported from the Erench capital a week ago was of a colourless character. Questioned on the subject in the Chamber of Deputies, M. Pichon, the French Minister for Foreign Affaire, merely replied that "if the Flushing fortification scheme became a menace, there would be ground *or France communicating with the interested Powers." M. Pichon knows just as well as his interrogators that the only thing that will present the. fortification of Flushing from becoming a menace is something that will prevent it from being proceeded with. Th© one danger to the independence of Holland is Germany, who is her neighbour on. the east. Fortifications at Flushing would be useless to check a German advance which would be irresistible on land, and could not even be assisted by, any naval operation. The fortification of Flushing would, however, be invaluable as an addition to the defences of Germany when her armies swarmed over the frontier to annex the Netherlands. For the Netherlands and Belgium alike the most effectual guarantee of their independence is the British Navy, and the fortification of Flushing, being aimed, against the British Navy and not against, the.German Army, is therefore really, aimed against the independence of the country which is undertaking the work. A blow is at the same time aimed at Belgian independence. Flushing commands the mouth of the Scheldt, through whioh Antwerp has its only access to the sea. "In view of all this," writes the Brussels correspondent of the Paris Temps, "Belgians ask themselves whether the defence of Flushing can answer any other object than that of eventually preventing England from assisting Belgium by bringing up the Scheldt towards Antwerp forces to threaten the German right 'wing in its eventual development across Belgian territory." A German advance westwards would threaten Belgium as well as Holland, and she could only be saved by the co-operation of France, her friend and neighbour on the south, with Great Britain. "Tho bottling up of Antwerp," which the carrying out of the Dutch scheme will effect, will prevent Britain from lending a hand. A cable message received to-day leads to the belief that Germany had been inclined to look to Belgium as a base for operations westward, but the death of King Leopold interfered with the development of this plan. In the very interesting article entitled "German Views of an Anglo-German Understanding," which Sir Harry Johnston contributes to 'ast month's Nineteenth Century, Germany's designs on the Netherlands are reported to have been stated with the utmost frankness by the many representative Germans whom he consulted. They declared the recognition of Germany's right to a preponderant influence in the Netherlands to be a sine qua non of any AngloGerman understanding. ' 'We have already brought pressure to bear upon the Dutch Government to ensure this," Sir Harry Johnston was informed. "We intend to stand no nonsense or to admit no tergiversation in this respect You may take it from us that an alliance for offensive and defensive purposes now exists between Holland and Germany, and that the foreign policy of the two nations will henceforth be as closely allied as is that of Germany and Austria." The fortification of Flushing looks as though Sir Harry Johnston's Jt f §gps

"to be the first-fruits of the alliance which binds Holland to defend herself against her protectors in order that she may be the more comfortably swallowed, 4by Germany.