MEMORIES OF A CHURCH

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 19, 23 January 1937, Page 20

MEMORIES OF A CHURCH

HPHE Queen of Holland, chose th» church at which her daughter, the Princess Juliana, was married, and naturally it was St. James's, or the Groote Kirk, at The Hague, where her own wedding took place thirty-fiva years ago. Whoever represents King George at the wedding will be stirred by strange and moving memories of history concerning Holland and our own land. In this church is the monument of one of England's gallant foemen, Admiral Baron Obdam, who perished ia. battle with our fleet 270 years ago. The war, one of three we had with Holland during the seventeenth century, was provoked by Charles the Second, who, as a return for shelter afforded him while in exile from England, began hostilities against his, former hosts and seized a settlement, on an island in an American river which the Dutch had newly discovered. They called the settlement New Amsterdam; this name -was changed to that which it has ever since borne. New York. There was living there at the tuna a newly-arrived Dutchman named Nicholas Roosevelt, who with his descendants remained citizens under the English flag for the next century and more. One of those descendants was President Theodore Roosevelt; another is the President who recently won an election battle. Had victory attended the battle of the old admiral whose monument ia in this church, Britain should not have won New York, and the Roosevelt.-; would have been denied the boast that for 126 years (hey were Englishmen.