THE NETHERLANDS: I Will Maintain!

Disgruntled Dutchmen settled down grimly last week to face the gravest crisis in the 45-year reign of their beloved Queen Wilhelmina.

Though Her Majesty has been called “middle class,” the fact is that the Royal House of Orange is on top of the Netherlands to a degree not achieved by royalty anywhere else. Rich men in other countries fawn socially on their sovereigns, never think of the Crown as an economic power. Dutch millionaires doubt if any of them is richer than their Queen. Her ancestor, William I, subscribed $1,600,000 to the original $14,900,000 capital of The Netherlands Trading Society for exploitation of his Indies. Few investments have ever been more fabulously profitable or more tightly held. As the profits rolled in, the House of Orange has invested in nearly every good thing in The Netherlands. And Queen Wilhelmina never speculates but holds. Last week, therefore, Wilhelmina viewed with no airy royal detachment the appalling fact that one-fifth of The Netherlands Bank gold reserve had been withdrawn in the frantic scramble for gold produced by fear that Catholic Party Leader Professor Petrus Josephus Mattheus Aalberse might succeed in forming a Cabinet and might then take the guilder off the gold standard.

Catholics, Bolsheviks & Calvinist. The moneyed Queen was credited by many of her subjects with taking Professor Aalberse neatly into camp and preserving her money on gold by the following maneuver: Her favorite statesman, ruthless, eagle-beaked Premier Hendrikus Colijn, who speaks English with a crusty Scottish accent, suddenly announced that he was not receiving adequate support from the Catholic members of his coalition, abruptly resigned. Thus ambitious Professor Aalberse was confronted with a surprise opportunity to form a Cabinet before his Catholics had time to organize a coalition. It turned out that Professor Aalberse would have to take five Communist Deputies into coalition to get a majority, and from such Bolsheviks the Catholics instinctively recoiled. Back in as Premier popped Calvinist Colijn. Last week aroused Dutch opinion was branding the Catholic Party as a pack of villains or fools responsible for the flight of 131,000,000 hard, heavy, gold guilders from The Netherlands Bank.

Such a maneuver may be “neat,” but Dutchmen fearfully wondered last week how often the Queen & Colijn may have to repeat a master stroke involving one-fifth of the nation’s gold reserve. Amid Depression’s typhoon, as the Dutch guilder is threatened in crisis after crisis, The Netherlands Bank frantically hoists its discount rate to 6% during the storms to attract as much gold as possible, then hastily reefs it down to 2½% during the lulls to give Dutch business the benefit of “cheap money.” Inevitably such desperate sailing scares the passengers half out of their wits. Last week Premier Colijn, as Captain of the gold standard galleon of The Netherlands, stepped to the microphone and cried with more courage than veracity: “Conditions in our country are much better than in most other countries!”

Yellow Emperor v. White Queen. Conditions in The Netherlands are sane, as that term is understood by Queen Wilhelmina, who said in her last Speech from the Throne, “This country stands for sanity!”

Sanity is the gold standard. Sanity is a balanced budget. Sanity is free trade. These verities the Queen and many of her subjects consider eternal. Judged by such verities, the Great Powers have gone insane, turning sound money into unsound, unbalancing budgets meant to be balanced, and shutting out cheap goods by tariffs, with the result that their own peoples have to pay more than they otherwise would for the necessities of life.

The Dutch point of view and the Queen’s are of much significance in the tiny Netherlands but of vast significance in Netherlands Indies, which are the third largest colonial empire in the world (59,000,000 natives). Great Powers may not care a great deal what happens to or in the Kingdom of The Netherlands but the destiny of the white race may prove to be that of the Netherlands Empire. If the small yellow subjects of Japanese Emperor Hirohito succeed in filching away from Queen Wilhelmina’s big white subjects the No. 3 colonial empire of the world, what about France’s No. 2 colonial empire and Britain’s No. 1? To Dutchmen, firmly convinced that they are sane, it was the supreme irony last week that Japan’s determined and successful filching is based, at its present stage, on Tokyo’s “insane” decision to make the yen worth only 40% of what it used to be worth in gold, while the guilder is still at full, sane value. Should Dutchmen Dance? Cold figures reveal that in 1928 England supplied 29% of all textiles bought by Queen Wilhelmina’s dusky Indonesian subjects in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Soemba, Bali, Flores, Timor, Banka, Billiton, New Guinea, Madura, Lombok, the Riouw Lingga and Molukken Islands, with Japan and The Netherlands tied for second place at 26%. Since then Japan has seized the lion’s share of 76%, while England and The Netherlands have been reduced to a mere 7% each. Lumping all Indonesia’s imports together, Japan’s share has swelled from 10% to 31%, while that of The Netherlands slumped from 20% to 12%. And such Japanese gains are but half the story.

As the tax income of the Netherlands Indies Government has fallen, it has sanely cut expenses to balance its budget. Out went most of the money for higher native schools. This has sent Indonesian youths rushing in droves to get their higher education in Japan, where they are told that Wilhelmina is a wicked old white millionairess and that Indonesia under Japanese rule would have to pay only a fraction of its present crushing, budget-balancing taxes. Even better, many Indonesians are now figuring out for themselves, would be self-rule. They babble ineffectually about “Indonesia for the Indonesians!” But native discontent is grim, real, threatening, and it springs from the impossibility of selling Indonesia’s products in sufficient volume on the World market at guilder prices.

If the guilder should go the way of the yen, pound and dollar, it is certain that Indonesia would increase her sales. But is it certain that the yen, pound and dollar will not dance on down an insane spiral with no bottom? And should Dutchmen join in such a dance? Brave Retreat. In The Hague last week Premier Colijn introduced his new Cabinet thus: “We will defend the guilder against devaluation! The people of The Netherlands must maintain their spirit and assist the Government in fighting the Depression under adverse circumstances!” This sounded as if the Premier had an aggressive program of some sort. As a matter of fact his strategy remained that of a general in brave and vigilant retreat, alert to advance at the first sign that, for example, the Great Powers had recovered their sanity to the point of being ready to join in a World monetary stabilization pact. This Dr. Colijn incessantly urges.

The Dutch Premier last week made only the merest gesture toward any sort of New Deal. He tolerates as his Minister of Commerce & Industry a protege of Professor Aalberse, Professor Henri Gelissen, who will work out an acceptable plan for government subsidies to depressed Dutch businesses.

The Premier, after all, did his first big job as War Minister. Prior to 1914 he persuaded the Queen and Parliament to strengthen the Dutch frontier so heavily that the German General Staff reputedly scrapped a set of plans which was to have sent their War machine crashing across The Netherlands as well as Belgium. Today since the solution of many a World problem may again be sought in war, Premier Colijn is suspected of having tentatively and secretly reversed the most fundamental policy of The Netherlands: neutrality.

“The White Front” Between fear and hope, Dutch editors have begun to speculate on whether some sort of understanding does not exist between the Netherlands Government and British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. It was he who astounded Germany by announcing, “The Rhine— that is where our frontier lies!” (TIME, Aug. 13, 1934), which at face value would mean that between The Netherlands and Germany stands British Air Power. It was Mr. Baldwin’s good friend Field Marshal Viscount Allenby who made a mysterious reconnaissance of Java in December 1933 which raised Japanese suspicions to the boiling point. This was followed by a British welcome to the Netherlands Indies fleet at Singapore, with Dutch and British admirals fraternizing, Japanese barred.

The present Governor of Netherlands Indies, Jonkheer Bonifacius de Jonge, also knew Mr. Baldwin during ten years in London where the Governor was a high official of Royal Dutch Shell. Too hopeful, perhaps, Dutchmen who fear Japan and know that Britain shares their fear now speak of “our white front” in the Far East, something as intangible as the Anglo-French entente before the World War and yet, perhaps, something equally decisive.

At The Hague last week clam-mouthed Dutch officials would not discuss “The White Front.” Shushing all queries, they told the great and patriotic lie that “there is no crisis in The Netherlands now,” added that the entire situation is covered by Dutch determination to continue applying the motto of Queen Wilhelmina’s Royal House, “Je Maintiendrai” (“I will maintain!”).

Gloucester & Juliana? Stubborn with the indomitable obstinacy of good women, both widowed Queen Wilhelmina and her only child, dumpling Crown Princess Juliana, have rejected all hints by Netherlands statesmen that it might be well for them to pay a visit to their Empire. In the strong-minded opinion of the Queen this is stuff & nonsense. She prefers to study her Empire industriously through voluminous reports and tedious lectures delivered by the most eminent Dutch professors. Wilhelmina has her doubts that she could possibly learn more of Indonesia by going there, and as for letting Juliana out of her sight for such a trip—impossible. The Queen’s idea of a good time for the Crown Princess is for both of them to go bicycling, side by side. On a visit to England last summer, Juliana asked Dutch reporters not to mention that King George had taken her to the Royal Ascot races.

That vulgar youth Don Juan, youngest son of the ex-King of Spain, relates that when not so long ago he tipsily teased Crown Princess Juliana about her sturdy legs, Juliana replied: “It is only proper that they should be strong, as I am the sole support of the House of Orange.” So she is. Years ago the Netherlands Parliament barred from succession all kinfolk of the Sovereign except direct descendants. Thus nationalistic Dutchmen shut out the Queen’s throne-hungry German relatives, but the simultaneous death of Wilhelmina and Juliana became an appalling risk. It would extinguish the Dutch Royal House, plunge the nation into turmoil, and force Parliament to decide between electing someone to the Throne or setting up a different form of government.

Today buxom Juliana is 26. Her prompt marriage is imperative and a burning issue in The Netherlands. For the good of the white race British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin is said to have, in common with Dutch Premier Hendrikus Colijn, a prayer ful hope that George V’s sole remaining bachelor son, the Duke of Gloucester, and Crown Princess Juliana may someday see their way clear to the Altar.