HOLLAND

New Zealand Tablet, 27 April 1911, Page 783

HOLLAND

CAMPAIGN AGAINST IMMORALITY. In Holland the legislators are busying themselves in the discharge of a duty which has become more and more important in these days of lax moral views. The Second Chamber has been discussing a Bill, the object of wdi'ch is to ensure effective measures for the suppression of pornography and literature containing neo-Malthusian doctrines. These doctrines (says the Catholic Times) have rapidly gained ground amongst the Protestants of Holland, and the Beukelaa, a Protestant paper, has confessed that largely owing to this cause the relative proportions of Catholics and Protestants in that country are changing year by year, to the advantage of the Catholics. In the northern villages, it says, the neo-Malthusian theories are

so commonly translated into practice by the Protest A ta that it is estimated Catholics will greatly preponderate in the' population within three generations from the present time. We are glad to observe that though these pernicious theories found an advocate in Professor Treufc, the powerful plea of the Catholic Minister of Justice’ M. Regent, for action by the Government was successful, and the Penal Code has been strengthened* by an Article making anyone who prints,; issues, or circulates ■ immoral publications liable to a year’s imprisonment or a fine of three thousand florins. The people who propagate immoral literature cannot be too severely punished. They are deadly enemies of society. 1 ■ J