HOLLAND'S FIGHT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 280, 29 November 1935, Page 6

HOLLAND'S FIGHT

DEFENCE OF GUILDER STALWARTS TO HER AID ROLE OF THE QUEEN I’he -oilapst of the gold standard j in the last three countries in which it survives is the grand climax io which | the world's monetary drama i> rushing i writes Ulir Price in the New York | Times. So we are told al any rate: | and those who tell us may easiL be right. Vet as far as Holland is «-on- . veined, the world’s monetary drama . seems to have struck an obstacle. In- ; stead of rushing to its climax, it has | got itself caught vn one or perhaps tw» j snags, with the result that at th- j moment of writing its predicted • Umax | does not seem tv be getting mu<i nearer. Due snag U Di. Hendrik Colijm Um . iron Dutchman who occupies, the ofib • o; Prime Minister. The other snag Dr. L. A. J. Trip, president of the | Netherlands Bank and commamler vi the Dutch guilder, on all the scattered . fronts on which it tace> attack truth | the world’s devalued currencies. Both these men. pending international agree- , ment on some new standard, arc .-tit k- • ; n ..- to the present gold standard > Through thick ami thin. Above and behind both of them there ' mav be a third and an even more tot . midable obstacle. Both Dr. Uolijn an J Dr. Trip were appointed by the Queen. .Dr. Tripp’s appointment was in line with ordinary Dutch usage. In form at least, the president of the Netherlands Bank is always a Crown ap •jointee. Dr. Uolijn *s case is a bit different. Dutch Prime Ministers arc supposed to govern by virtue of . a majority in the Lower House. In this. . ;hev differ not at all flyni otnvi ! pe-»;de’s Prime Ministers. Many Summonses. r».; s.n r the group *y?ietn appeared I n the Lower House there have not • been majorities. ’I he result ha> | ‘••en tiaat the Queen has repeatedly had j , o summon a party leader of her uw*n | choosing to farm a Government iudc- | pendent of Parliament.. This is the ! status of Dr. Uoliju’s present Govern-| meat. His party forms one ot the | suKillct groups in the Lower House. | V a tesult. he governs with the I Queen's support rather than witn lb»support of Parliament. Queen Wilhelmina must a-<»• . ilingiv I be regarded as the tinal member of the j Trio »»i -trong personalities who domin- j nte the gold -t:i.eh«rd Ibdlam! uf to-j Their is a tvi.rlh personality oe reckoned with. He is outside this dominant trio, nevertheless hr needs to | be borne in mind. Ihr picture-post--card Dutch peasant in his clogs, his ba ’-’v breeks. and his light fitting jauTct with the large round buttons down the front of it. 5 usually at- I .opted by the holidaying loreigner in Holland part of the quaint natural • venerv of the country, along with I black and white cows and vid-fashioned oail windmills. Vet he ha- elements ut character i -which are common to all the Dutch I from the Queen down. With (Dutch | thrift, he has saved a few guilders and j nvested them through some village! stockbroker of h’s own class—a type, peculiar tv Holland. He is au investor 4nd not a speculator. What interests him is the security uf his money and its yield. Hr does uot want to see monev—anybody s money—debased hi value’. As far as hr understands p.ouotnics—which is not very lar -be . is all for stable money. A Topical Case. Hr is iepical of thp b. va.i base of Dutch society as well as of its middle and upper slopes. Holland is a countrv in which even seivant g*rl* huy securities —foreign as well as Dutch, for Holland is one of the most international countries un the Continent. Like England, it has amassed its wealth by the free exchange of goods, service'-, and capital the world over. Such a country can live only in a world of economic peace. To this day. indeed, the somewhat bewildered Dutch find it ditticult to elieve that any uther kind of world can last. Yet they find iroßtiers on ail aides o e them bristling with tariffs, import quotas, devalued currencies, clearingrestriction.’, and all tie other para-

Iphcrnai-a of economic warfare. To the trim and tidy Dutch mind, it is all an economic, madhouse. And little bv | little the Dutch themselves are being touched by its madness. Within a -loud ot subsidies, ‘‘fiscal’’ tariffs, import quota.-. Clearing Acts, and all the rest of it. the faint outlines of some new ami unheard-of Holland uo;v begin ■ u appear—a Holland whose brain has been touched by economic nationalism. Bur so far none of these encircling J luna-ie> has been allowed to corrupt 5 the guilder. The IDutch have stuck to j the orthodox ffnaneeof the gold stan- . lard, piling on the taxes to balance : the Budget and squeezing down wages to enable their exporters to meet the I-ompetition of devalued currencies; j abroad. No political group in the | Lower House advocates anything else ’ than the gold standard. True, there ■ are party groups with recovery programmes involving expenditure at a • rate which in ah probability would : make the gold standard unworkable, but u-j such group has yer been sum moned by the Quern to form a Gov Divided Nation.

Outside politics there is much less unanimity on the gold standard. Some ••t the biggest industrial interests in the country have lost hope in the ; golden guilder and are loudly demanding devaluation. The petroleum com- . • ■ • -- are sti mg fox devaluation. The -hipp.ng interests favour it in milder lilies. The various tourist interests 1-ay it w ill have to • ome. Most of the • larger exporters believe that *‘it would ■ help u< with our accounts. ’’ But in politics the one big issue so iar has been the vigour of the recovery programme whether recovery demands an aggressive economic nationalism or is to come through a merely defensive programme, the aim being to keep the traditional economic structure of the country as nearly intact as possible until things get belter. Meanwhile the plain Dutch peasant feels the pinch of rigorous deflation. He may not feel it as badly as the I white-collar men in the towns do, but ,he feels it badly enough. He is opposed to devaluation on principle, but [if he has no savings left to be detailed he might easily welcome any prospect of escape from the terrific depilation of to-day. At the same time he .does not pretend to understand these ■matter', and his bewilderment in- ■ creases when he sees even learned econjomists differing on them. Ho knows that deflation is .responisible lor the decrease in everything | that he has been accustomed to, that it | has an intimate and tragic effect on | hi' standard of living. still, he hits j been brought up to re>pe. t the men who govern him. \ man of serious mind himself, he gi'-e. 4 ’u Dutch ooli- • *>••* the weighty and serious tone which is typical of it. Nowhere in ’•hitch politic-, do you find the lightly • yuical thread which is woven into so much of the Continent’# politics. Nor do yo i find the regionalism which is .yp .nj of larger countries. The hardest hit victim of deflation can always console himself with the reflection that .••we’re all in Jhe same boat.’’

The Queen. I i.s i lie population which .-o far I has been held to the hard but known [road of the gold standard by that trio t of strong personalities, the Queen, Dr. ; Uolijn, and Dr. Trip. The number of I Dutchmen who are capable uf influencing Queen Wilhelmina could be counted on the lingers of one hand. [ \.u-i when you finished counting them you would probably have a couple of lingers left. She has reigned since she was Id and is now 53 —a lunger reign than that of any other sovereign on a throne to-day. The result is that most uf her Ministers stand iu awe of her. >she is I strong-minded, a woman of decided ‘views. She can be impressed by ‘superior knowledge, but as she knows must subjects of Dutch interest at least as well as her Ministers do, it is not alway> wise to differ from her. She is serious both in her talk and in her work but she is also master of the Royal art of being extremely pleasant. She is wry religious and very straitlaced. £he tolerates no frivolities. She takes a minimum ot' interest in food, dress, and social life. She has a woman's Jove of flowers, she is an accomplished artist in water-colours. In the privacy of her own grounds she leads an outdoor life as her work permits. The IDutch rarely see her. She makes but one public appearance a year—her state drive from the little white palace in the N’oordcinde to the old Hall of the Knights of Bianenhof. where she

t ifiu.M-jM-s in a quaauan. opens the new session of Parliament with the speech from the Throne. As soon as the state coach, with its eight plumed black horses and its scar-let-coated postilions, wheels into the Xoordcind'e and a sudden outbreak of cheering drowns the clatter of the cavalry escort the Queen can be plainly seen sitting in the back seat —a short, rather full figure with a wide brow, widely-spaced blue eyes, and a rather heavy upper lip, wearing the blue and orange ribbon of the Netherlands Lion across a dress of turquoise blue. A few years ago the Dutch Royal Family consisted of the Prince Consort and three generations of women, the Queen Mother, the Queen, and her only e’lild. the Crown Princess. To-day only the widowed Queen and Crown Princess survive. On these two lives hangs the traditional loyalty of the (Dutch to the House of Qrange-M assau.