DUTCH NEUTRALITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16009, 30 August 1915, Page 8

DUTCH NEUTRALITY.

MR. CHURCHILL'S VIEWS. NO FEAR FROM ALLIES. An interview with Mr. Winston Churchill recently appeared in the Dutch newspaper Nieuwe KuUerd.uiiM.lw Cuurant. '1 he writer, after describing Mr. Churchill's personality, says . ' 1 was struck several times, how, with a single gesture or a. couple of imaginative words woven into his unstudied conversation, he called up a great rhetorical picture. Such as when he spoke in broken sentences of "the wild beast in its cage,' 'The flames, approaching from all sides nearer and nearer," 'Savage attack- left and right,' or v.hen ho raised his hatid and pointed to the 'Chastised criminal as a fearful example.' "I was no less ftruck by the undeniable -sincerity and emotion with which he spoke of the terrible sacrifices that Enj land has already made for the principle of the right of the small nations to exist. Mr. Churchill did not conceal from me his opinion, that geographically and strategetically, the .-err .tonal arrangement of the mouth of the Scheldt appeared to him unnatural. Wit ho i a doubt it had done harm to the cause o; the allies.

" If Antwerp had been able to obtain transports along the Scheldt it need not have fallen, and the Belgian Army would have been able to maintain its position on the Nethe line instead of on the Yser line. I raid it was not everybody in the Netherlands that was of this opinion, and Mr. Churchill did not contradict me when I pointed out that the disadvantages of our command over the Scheldt did not hit exclusively at one party, seeing that at the moment it held Antwerp closed for the Germans.

" 'But however this may be,' he said, 'don't understand me wrongly. I don mean any reproach. If the Netherlands had allowed this violation of it* neutrality it would have boon attacked and perhaps occupied for a great part by the German Army. This would have been a sacrifice that nobody has any right to ask or to expect of the Netherlands. Nobody has any right to reproach the Netherlands for its' neutrality. As an independent State, it has to consider its own interests, and it has the fullest right to act in accordance with them.

" ' Have wo not given the proof that wo recognise that right? At a most critical moment we have rarofully respected it. " ' I not explain to a Dutchman that Belgium in the hands of the Germans would mean an end of the independence of the Netherlands. A free Netherlands cannot exist with a German Antwerp. But these are affairs on which your statesmen and your own people must decide. In the meantime, there are possibilities of real dancer. Germany may he forced to tack Holland. Germany is petting into the position of a wild heast in its cage that sees the Pa .ies cumin* nearer and nearer, and mr';.s desperate dashes left and light- Fortunately, you have a good and brave army, aid then your wonderful water-line.

" ' Tn any case you will understand that we who have put ourselves forward as the champion of die oppress! small nations can do nothing to touch the undeniable rights of another small nation. And von understand also that after this war. when we have brought it to a victorious end — and that we shall certainly do—th« position of the small States will he stronger than ever before. The criminal that has thrown himself upon little Belgium will stand after his chastisement as a f-arfr.l example. What you now say. that some peopln in Hi Hand fear, luimdy. that in the Peace Congress when the allies lay down the terms there may he some talk of a proposition to the Netherlands to give up Zeeland and Flanders in exchange for a piece of German territory in East Friesland or something of that sort—peace is still such a long way off—these affairs have been searcelv. if at all. spoken of. But. ence more it would he a.'ainst the very essence of our ciuse to treat ludly .1 country such as the Netherlands, or now or later, under any circumstances, to coerce it, whether bv force or threats, in any way whatever.' -"