DUTCH UNREST

Evening Star, Issue 21819, 7 September 1934, Page 11

DUTCH UNREST

AMSTERDAM “ REVOLT " LOST FOREIGN INVESTMENTS LEGACY OF THE WAR. Recent dispatches have told of a “ revolt ” in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam. Working people living in that old-fashioned quarter erected barricades. A few men were killed; others were subdued by the police, writes G. J. Simons, in the ‘ New York Times.’ The reason for that “ revolt ” is this: The cities have to pay the greater part of the dole for idle people, most, of whom live in the big centres. Amsterdam put in its Budget 20,000,000 guilders (about £2,700,000) for the dole. The Provincial Government of North Holland refused to accept the Budget. Thereupon the City Council slashed the dole. On July X the people got their diminished allowances, and Communists found this an excellent occasion to start trouble. A free-for-all fight began. To speak of this as a revolution or even as an upheaval is, so far as I can judge, pure nonsense. The greatest difficulty is created by the surplus of man-power. The Netherlands Government tries in every way to cut down the number of unemployed. Prime Minister Colyn and his new young Minister of Economics, Dr M. P. L. Steenherghe, do not expect economic miracles from the outside. That is the reason why they try to keep their own house in order. Dr Colyn asked and got C 0,000,000 guilders (about £8,000,000) to continue his public works programme in order to create work for the idle people. _ The Zuyder Zee works are to he continued also. The so-called north-eastern “polder,” a project that will_ require ten to twelve years for completion, will cost 110,000,000 to 120,000,000 guilders (about £15,000,000 to £16,000,000). And there will still he a great number of unemployed. What can the Government the provinces, the communities do further to decrease their number ? OLD-AGE PENSION. ! Nobody likes the dole. The Industrial Council has made a proposal to fix the pension age for working people at fifty-five or fifty-six instead of at sixty-five years. The basic idea is to eliminate the older working men and to replace them by the younger generation. This will be, of course, a very slow process, but it will help in the long run. The Government and the Dutch people fear that the young generation will be idle for many years to come if general conditions do not improve. The Prime Minister is not oversanguine. Recently he said : “ It seems to mo that the present world crisis is going to staywith us for many more years. The nations have to accommodate themselves to those conditions. The revival of 1925-29 was duo to ox-edit inflation. The slipping down to an unknown abyss was stopped only for a very short period. Everybody is familiar with those conditions.” The Dutch debts are increased by about 255,000,000 guilders (£30,000,000), and Premier Colyn fears that another 200,000,000 (£27,000,000) will bo necessary for the 1935 Budget. It seems impossible to increase taxes. I'bey are now so high that some capitalists pay 75 per cent, of their income. The Social Democrats, who are part Irresponsible for the increase of debts in the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and elsewhere, arc now asking for a capital levy. ‘ Holland suffers not on account of hexown mistakes, but beotiuse of the nus-

takes of other nations. This small country, with a population little in excess of 8,000,000 and Fax- East possessions containing more than 60,000,000, lives by export, import, indxxstries, and agriculture. Her industries are efficient, her agricultural products well known all over the world. A RICH COUNTRY. Before the Wox-ld War Holland was a rich coxxntry. She could afford to invest millions in Russia, Austria, the Balkans, the Dutch East Indies, and the United States. Then came the great debacle. Holland” stayed out of the war, but she lost capital invested in Russia, in Gex-many, in Austria, in the Balkan States. Even now she has approximately 1,500,000,000 guildex-s (£224,000,000) at stake in Germany. The present value of these Germanbonds and shares is about 400,000,000 guilders (£54,000,000). With the exception of a few largo industries the Holland manufacturers are in the red. The same may be said of the shipping companies, and so on. The farmers have been hit in such a way that the Netherlands Government lias had to help them. Holland has always been the protagonist of Free Trade. But Holland was, nolens volexxs, obliged to adopt the measures of tx-ade restrictions, regulations of import, and so on, which were set up by the other nations. She adopted tliem, although she knew that she could not thereby create prosperity or bring hex-self out of the depression. Premier Colyn predicted years ago that an international trade war xvould_ be the result of the erection of continxxoxxsly groxving tariff walls, trade restriction, and quotas. Every hanker and economist to whom I spoke during a recent motor trip across the United States asked me if Holland would he forced off the gold standard, and I gave the following reply : “ A young, vigorous Hollander whom I met in New York three months ago, the very capable leader of one of Holland’s great industries, said: ‘As long as Px-emier Hendrik Colyn is at the helm of the Dutch Government and as long as Dr Trip is at the head of the Netherland (Central) Bank there will 100 no interference with the gold standard in Holland.’ ” Now the only question is: “Will Colyn and Trip be there for the next few years?” I answer, “Ask me another !”■