HOLLAND IN WAR TIME

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 153, 26 December 1914, Page 9

HOLLAND IN WAR TIME

NEW ZEALAND LADY'S'IMPRESSIONS. VISIT TO MAASTRICHT. (FBOSI 0U« OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 11th November. Madame Hamelius, wifo of Professor Paul Hamelius, of Liege, who will be remembered in Christclmrch as Miss Dora Wilcox, has just returned from an interesting journey through Holland. Her objective was Maastricht, from which place she hoped to get in touch with Liege, where are still her worldly possessions and many friends. "Hollan'l was once the land of peace and quiet, but now all is changed," Madame Hamelius tells me. "There aro soldiers everywhere ; they line the frontiers and the seacoast. They are much to be pittied, dragged away from their ordinary busy lives. They have nothing to <io but watch and wait, drill, march, play billiards, and be helpful to the Belgian refugees. Holland keeps her neutrality, but she suffers cruelly from the war. Her commerce is at a standstill, and she has so many mouths to feedthere are a million refugees in that small country, there are Belgian, English, and German interned soldiers, and there aro the 400,000 of her own men who are pro ducing nothing, and must be fed. _ "We found the Dutch newspapeis enj tirely neutral and correct in their attitude, but the Dutch people with whom we travelled and talked were almost in variably most sympathetic. I had an impression that we were always among friends, and the Germans were a com mon enemy. We travelled with a German one day. All the other travellers were Dutch or Belgian, and we talked together like old acquaintances. A Dutchman, who lived near Vise, the Belgian frontier town where the Germans entered, told us what it looks like now— hardly a house is standing, the old church and the quaint town hall beloved by painters, are in ruins. An abbe told us of thirty priests who had been shot in Belgium, and of the Cure of Etat, who had been mutilated before he died. The German said nothing; he shrank into his corner and tried to sleep. When we came to a station he got out and found another compartment. He did not look at all like a member of a triumphant conquering nation, as he shuffled out with a conciliatory 'Ponchour !' which alone would have betrayed his nationality. "A Belgian lady from Brasschaort, near Antwerp, had many interesting things to tell. She had seen the firal German troops pass through the village, the officer bo drunk that he could hardly sit his horse. She had seen a significant change in the behaviour of the Germans too. At first they were cheerful, swaggering, and arrogant; they made tha frightened villagers shout 'Long live Germany !' and mocked them because they did not shout loudly enough. But in the last days the troops that passed through looked weary and dejected, and the officers hung their heads. She had had no newspapers, but she judged that things were not going as the Germans ex pected, and she was full of hopefulness "Maastricht, our destination, was packed with refugees and soldiers. There were three separate fortifications on the Meuee bridge, and the house that dominated it had its windows blocked with sandbags, behind which the sentinels might shoot. Trains no longer ran to Aachen or to Vise, both so near to Maastricht. The same Mouse flowing 60 peacefully under the bridge had fun red at Dinajit, Namur, Liege. "There was little difficulty in communicating with Liege. Dutch carriers went in and out every day, and steamers ran along the canal. But passes were necessary, and we decided to let a neutral do our work. He came back with two boxes full of goods and the news that the house was intact. Ninety German soldiers had slejit in it ' one night, and all the boots and slippers had disappeared. What was life like in Liege? we asked of friends. Oh, it was very dull— just like life in a German town. Thp soldiers were everywhere ; 30.000 old Bavarian troops were quartered in the city, the factories were closed, everyone had to be indoors by 7 p.m., and there were vio news, no papers, no trains, no anything, but trains full of the wounded passing through to Germany. What was going to happen when the Germans were beaten back? Nobody knew, but in Maastricht — sinister and significant fact — there is an empty hospital with all its beds ready for that day. We visited the Calvarienburg Hospital in Maastricht, where there are still German soldiers lying who were wounded before Liege. Such thin and yellow faces ! One forgot these were legal enemies, one only longed to relieve the suffering of those mothered sons. I gave a rose to each for his mother's sake. "Before leaving Maastricht wo walked to the frontier. It was a lovely day, and loaves were red and yellow under a bright blue sky. But war seemed very near. There were the barricades again, and the Dutch soldiers in their Tittle sentry-boxes. On the other side the Germans were drinking in a cafe. 1 walked into Belgian territory, pinned the New Zealand flag upon a tree and sang the National Anthem. It was all I could do. Two German soldiers crossing a bridge stopped to look for a moment, and then passed on. Our last night in Holland was spent on the sea coast near Flushing. I woke in the night and he&itl a, noise «a if a, great storm .were raging. <-'W.e

shall be seasick tomorrow,' 1 thought sleepily, as I turned over. But when we came down to breakfast next morning the first question was: 'Well, did you hear the cannon in the night?' It was no storm I had heard rattling my window, but the guns from the English monitors bombarding the Germans across the water. , The next dav^ we returned in safety to England."