EUROPE TO-DAY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 230, 27 August 1938, Page 10

EUROPE TO-DAY.

THE DUTCH AT WAR. The Dutch are for ever at war with the sea. , If you look at a map of Holland you will see that her coast is roughly shaped like a bow, from the mouth of the River Scheldt to the mouth of the River Ems, and for more than halt this distance the outermost rim is formed by islands. Far back in time the islands were part of the mainland, but tho sea has burst through in many places, forming the islands, and forming further north the great bay called the Zuyder Zee. When these inroads of the sea have taken place, hundreds of villages have been destroyed and covered by salt waters. The seashores are formed by low sandhills, blown away by the strong sea-winds. Then, if the sea breaks through where the sandhills have been weakened, the waters rush in and fill up huge tracts, for two-fifths of the whole country is lower than sealevel* and this . low-land —Holland means hollow land—is the richest soil in the country.

The rivers themselves, moreover, and the many canals which join river to river, are higher than the fields beside their banks, and their beds are constantly being made higher by the soil they bring down suspended in their waters, so that they, too, may burst their banks and flood the country. To prevent this ruinous flooding, the Dutch have to exercise everlasting watchfulness and skill, making banks or dykes to keep out the sea, strengthening the dunes or sandhills, and building higher the river and canal embankments on which their paved highways are made.

These dangers, and the care and cleverness with which they are overcome, have been a training for the whole people, and have built up the national character generation after generation. In mastering difficulties the Dutch race has become staunch, strong, and brave.—(G.) '