The Press: In Memoriam

One year ago last week, 13 U.S. newsmen (including TIME’S Jack Werkley), coming home from an assignment in Indonesia, died in the crash of a Dutch plane near Bombay, India (TIME, July 25, 1949). Last week, in their memory, The Netherlands government established the William the Silent Award. The prize, for the best annual article on The Netherlands by a U.S. writer in a U.S. newspaper or magazine: a gold medal and $2,500. Announcing the award, Editor Albert Balink of The Netherlands-U.S. magazine, Knickerbocker, explained: “William the Silent was the kind of personality any [newsman] would like to cover.”*

* A precociously democratic monarch, William the Silent was drafted by the people of The Netherlands to be their king (1579), refused to wear a crown.