FORTIFICATION OF FLUSHING.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12711, 23 March 1911, Page 4

FORTIFICATION OF FLUSHING.

Flushing on modern lines, a contributor I to the "Fortnightly sees a revival of the Dutch ambition to cripple Ant- ' worp, the great Belgian city situated ' a few .niks from the mouth of tho Seldldt, lh.» ontranco t:> which rivec' Flu-hing commands. Amsterdam and' tt:;ttcTd:mi have always bitterly r:s2nt-' od t!ij- compsiLili-m of Antwerp, and ior ccnturi:? made, their reseii'tm^irs' very sensibly felt. But the [treaty of 1831, by which th;< greot Powers constituted Belgium a separate State and guaranteed it? iniopendenco, putt an •end t> iili that. . The Scheldt is now a 'free international river, and on it;1 remaining open to the apj roach of th'iir! frkuds, tho Belgians rightly conceive' ih-tir independenco and safety largely to1 depend. Still, Holland owns Flushing,1 aiio tha territory at both sides of the 1 mouth of tho Scheldt, and her legal right to erect tho fortifications she con-l templates seems impossible to impugn, j But tho "broad and brutal fact remains that the fortification of Flushing will wmst from th? Belgians the hard-earn-1 cd rights of the last century, and re-' duco Antwerp tc- a< state of tutelage' in/the interests of Amsterdam and Rot- ' t'-rdam.''