Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1916-03-21
RETIREMENT Of
DUTCH MINISTER
CAUSES REGRE7
Portfolio of Finance Now Con-
Sidered Most important in
Government Successors
Appointment Well Received,
associated Press Correspondence,

The Hague, Netherlands, March 5.
The recent retirement of the Dutch
minister of finance. Professor Marie
! Wllem Frederik Treub---who since
| the outbreak of the war has been a
far more prominent figure in the cab
met than the minister of war and per-
haps more in the limelight even than
the prime minister, Mr.. Cort van der
Linden himself-evoked a feeling of
regret. almost of dismay in wide cir
cles here. The selection of his sue
cessor. Doctor Anton van Gym, has,
however, been very well received and
is generally regarded as about the
best and safest that could have been
made.
The fall of the energetic. forceful,
almost autocratic, Professor Treub,
who carried through the big war loan
and has but recently introduced a
whole set of measures to entirely re-
form the country's taxation system
and incidentally produce q big in
crease in revenues. was the direct re-
suit of vote of censure passed in the
second chamber of the Dutch parlia-
ment, in connection with what seem
ed q somewhat trivial dispute con-
corning the order of dealing with the
governments legislative program. The
event led, however, to various sur
misses, it being openly suggested in
one or two quarters that the fall was
case of ministerial suicide for per-
sonal reasons. This. however. is EN-
phatically denied by the retiring min
lister himself.
AS treasurer general, the new min
lister has been Professor Treub's CO.
worker in the department of finance,
having been at the head of the treas
ury for over ten years. He was, as
a matter of fact, offered and declined
in 1913 the portfolio he has now un-
der pressure accepted, In his official
capacity he has thus been the daily
adviser OF four successive ministers
of finance, so that he is far from be-
ing a stranger to the duties he is TAX
ing up. Moreover. his appoint ac-
cords with the parliamentary
character of the whole ministry,
which was formed by an outsider"
after the general election when the
parties constituting the left majority
failed to come to an agreement for the
formation OF cabinet
The crisis had threatened seriously
TO endanger the big legislative pro-
gram of the government but this
danger has been largely lessened by
a division of the heavy burden that
had rested on Professor Treubs
shoulders. While Or. van Gym will,
it is understood, retain the tax bills of
his predecessor, with a view to res
cuing the country's finances from the
perilous position in which the war
crisis has thrown them. he is TO be re-
lieved of the social insurance section
of his department, which passes to
the minister of waterways and public
works, DR.. G. Lely, who will thus have
charge of the old age pension bill that
forms so prominent an item in the
governments program.
IT is generally recognized that If
DR. van Gym succeeds in finding the
big sums of money that will be es-
sential in the next year or two to meet
the strain of the long mobilization
and the war crisis generally, and in
CARRYING through and providing for
the war loans he will have deserved
we'll of his country. No one can yet
tell what further strain may yet be
put upon the little kingdom Of the
Netherlands In this perilous position
in the midst Of the great European
conflagration