The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-09-02
WHAT THE DUTCH THINK OF 1T.
Some Want to Fight; Some Don't.
Classes Divided.


Hague for month without ever be-
ing certain just what Holland really
thinks of the war, writes a staff cor
respondent to the Brooklyn Eagle
If you question a Dutchman in re-
gard to his sympathies, he will tell
YOU what his wife thinks, what the
government thinks, and what every
body thinks, but himself. But il
you should go swimming with him al
Scheveningen, he is quite likely tc
emerge from a wave to blurt out, in
an off moment, something against
England, or loud phrase against
Germany. But he must know you
first. For all his solidity, the Dutch
man has moments of unguarded inn
pulse.
On bright afternoon in early
July, the steamship Vondel, named
for a famous native poet, left Am
sterdam for the Dutch East India
The cabin passengers, a mere hand
full, were all Dutch with the excep-
ton of myself officers, physicians
and engineers of the Dutch army,
wealthy merchants and landowners.
and a Dutch consular official bound
for small port on the Red Sea.
Charming folks they were, unspoiled
by the deadly provincialism of the
untraveled Hollander, and all speak
ing other languages than their own,
{; for the Dutchman is the best linguist
in Europe, because outside of his
own country, he can't do business
in Dutch, so usually he speaks Ger
man, English and French as well.
Frank War Talk.
You should have sat in the smok-
ing room on the evening that the
Vondel struck smooth water after
two rough days in the Bay of Biscay.
Someone began discussion of the
war, and Immediately cross-section
5 of Dutch public opinion, naive and
frank, was laid bare. The army Of
fcers and merchants said that Hol-
land ought to attack Germany at
once. The consul general said that
Germany was a friendly neighbor
and should be unmolested.
There, without the familiar argu-
ments of indictment and defense, you
have the Dutch viewpoint clearly re-
fected. The army and the business
men are aggressively anti-German.
(The business men are anti-British,
too, but that doesn't matter). The
court and official classes are inofen-
sively pro-German. While court and
cabinet can decide for war, it is the
army which must do the fighting.
The situation is curiously contradic-
terry. -
: Each side upheld. itself with an
eloquence one would have believed
impossible. But the next morning
everybody was, sto1id again, every
body regretted having spoken so free
" and so emotionally. Several men
dropped into steamer chair at my
side to explain that they really had
been over-emphatic on the previous
evening, and what they said should
be disregarded.
s. Dutch Not Unlike Americans.
:, Although one would hardly credit
It, the Dutch are not unlike Ameri-
cans in some ways. They have a
highly developed sense of perspective
which will not permit them to take
Holland or the Hollanders too Sc
riously, just as an American, because
he has no perspective at all, refuses
to think in terms of continents in
stead of counties.
We'll fight the Germans all
right said merchant, who was al
so an officer in the Royal Naval Re-:
serve. well fight them with
! brooms and wooden shoes. I'm all
for war, but what say is, let some
!. body else do the fighting. Not I!''
And whenever you know Dutch
man who isn't in the army you'll find
just that attitude. The Dutch derive
great pleasure in ridiculing them
selves to foreigners The Dutch ci-
william has no respect for any man in
uniform, merely because it's a uni
form. Fer royalty they have no real
reverence at ali. Queen Wilhelmina
enjoys only a mild popularity, partly
because she is dowdy, which dis
pleases the men, and partly because,
although the richest sovereign in Eu-
rope, she is economical, which dis
pleases the women AS for Prince
Hendrick, the consort, he is merely
tolerated. One of Wilhelmina' s
chief worries nowadays is to make
Henry keep his large mouth shut.
He has all a Germans instinct for