DAMAGE IN HOLLAND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21548, 30 October 1944, Page 3

DAMAGE IN HOLLAND

RECUPERATIVE STEPS DIFFICULTIES REALISED CIO a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 29. The Germans have wrought new and extensive destruction and damage, according to a report lately received from Holland by the Netherlands Government Information Bureau. It is now certain that the recuperative power of the Netherlands, with their dense populations, will be greatly impaired from the viewpoints of agriculture, industry and commerce.

It is impossible to expect, considering the legitimate claims of other nations, that Germany will be able to make good the damage by the transfer of economic assets from one side of the frontier to the other within a reasonable period. The experience gained at the end of the last war showed the difficulties attending such a transfer.

Considering further that it is in the general interest of Germany to be made to realise once and for all that aggression does not pay, it is possible that the people of the Netherlands may reach the conclusion, despite their innate repugnance to all forms of armed conquest, that, if some substantial measure of reparation is to be made by the invader, a suitable part adjoining Prussian territory should either be ceded to the Netherlands, provision being made for the absorption by Germany of 1 Prussian inhabitants, or brought into the dominion and economic orbit of the Netherlands on a provisional or permanent basis.