Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-06-08
.HOLLANDER PREDICTS
f. END Of WORLD-VAR
IN z OR 8 MONTHS
Vim Braat, Manufacturer of
Delft, Holland, Visiting in
Atlanta Gives Graphic Story
of German Atrocities

The European war will come to q
close within two or three months, If
the belief Of Vim Braat. a manufac-
Jurer of Delft, Holland. now in Atlanta,
I is borne out in the unrolling of events.
Though Mr.. Braat puts his predic-
ton in the form of an opinion. he de-
clares that not only is il his belief,
but the prevailing one throughout Hol-
Land. Beyond the limit of two or three
months he does not see how the Ger
man economic fabric can endure.
Mr.. Braat is fresh from his native
land. He landed in New York a week
ago following a sixteen days trip on
the ocean, and the booming of big
guns is still in his ears, both in a
literal as well as a figurative sense
For though Delft-the town of the cele-
brated Delft ware and the grave of Will
liam. 1.-THE Silent-is an interior town, the
/ country is small and every Hollander
feels himself virtually a grandstand
spectator of the greatest conflict of all
times.
From my home we can hear every
now and then the sound of the guns"
said Mr.. Braat, land sometime the
houses shake. For you see We are only
a few miles from Ostend."
1ncidentally-or specifically to be en-
tirely accurate, Mr. Braat has braved
the lurking menace of the seas to mar
~ an Atlanta girl whom he met in
Paris.
His engagement TO Miss Virginia
Woolley, the accomplished Atlanta ar
fist. is announced Thursday. the. mar
rage TO take place near the end of
the month. Mr. Braat and his bride
will return TO Holland within five weeks
whether or not Mr.. Edison has quelled
the C-hoats meanwhile
Mr. Braat is visiting the family of
Miss Woolley, and il was i'm the office
Of J. a. Wolley, in the Connally build
ing. that The Journal representative
talked with the Netherlands manufac-
Iurer.
Il was just saying when you came
in he declared. that we believed in
Holland that the war would be over i'm
two months. Though my family does
not have direct communication with
/ Germans. many of our citizens do and
the reports declare that the people are
getting more and more restless.
Even the little children, we hear. are
going along the streets of Berlin ana
Munich waving red flags. When Cham
ceilor Won Bethman-Hollweg arose u
speak II the reischtag the people would
hardly hear him. They rose up and
shouted the war must end "
Reports of this character we're fire.
Gueat and insistent. said Mr. Braat, and
were borne out i'm a few instances by
personal experiences. Mr.. Braat ex-
planned that his brother had made one
or two business trips into Germany, and
tina; at the end of two or tire days
would be n a state of exhaustion due to
the insufficient nutritive quality of the
food. This was the case despite the
fact that all production was being di-
.
possible. The Germans were not even
allowed TO starch their collars-this be-
ing an uHsocial luxury whe nstarch
might help feed an empty stomach.
This being the burden OF the news
that came from Germany, Holland had
concluded that the war must end soon.
The entrance of the United States into
the war they considered important from
2 financial standpoint. But that the war
would last long enough for the Amerl-
cans to train a large army they do not
believe.
MIR. Braat was asked IL Dutch opinion
of Germany was undergoing any change.
l None, he said, except that the people of
/ Holland were hating the Germans all the
more.
The Holland people feel that the
kaiser is keeping the war going" said
Mr.. Braat. 'and then we have come TO
know the Belgian refugees rather well
there are fifty OF them i'm our factory
alone-and we have heard from them
the stories OF the German outrages-the
/ destruction of Louvain and such"
Hurt, Jr.
Contrary to a loose opinion obtain
I ing in America, Mr.. Braat declared that
/ Holland is not growing rich through
/ German trade. Holland is not growing
/ rich at all. The pinch of war that had
already gotten TO Germany's vitals was
now being felt In the Netherlands too.
/ All families. rich or poor. are now on
ration allowances. Mr.. Braat's family.
along with others was issued card pc
riodically and allowed the use of only
so much meat-an amount that to
! Americans would seem far too small.
Such commerce as Holland carried on
with Germany was on a strictly recip-
rocal basis. The fuel question was a
grave one-and il was imperative that
/ Holland should have coal that only the
I Germans could supply. Such supplies
I that she sent to Germany, therefore.
were only in exchange for such COM
modities as were necessary for the ex-
/ istence of the Dutch people.
In every way Holland was made to
\ feel the daily nearness of the big war.
\ Thousands of informed prisoners were
I in Holland-German, Belgian and
/ English They were situated in three
/ big camps and an electrically charged
/ barbed wire fence stretching along the
! entire Belgian and German frontier
Z prevented their escape. And then there
/ was the constant manufacture Of mu-
Z nit!ons. the presence Of soldiers In the
streets continually. the occasional sight
{ Of a Zeppelin and the continuous far
away laundering Of the giant coast
{ guns.
II saw a fight at sea myself" said
| Mr.. BRAT Three or four air ma
/ chimes engaged two or three destroyers
1 or perhaps IL was the reverse. Any
how, I saw the airships circle around
and finally one Of them. then another
j crumpled and fell into the sea-
i And at his sisters home I'm Flushing
I the populace frequently see Zeppelins
j lowering over-once so close that the
crew could he distinguished. They were
probably making sketches of fortresses
I Always the soldiers would take shot
at the Yep. but usually without effect
AIr. Braat agreed that this was an impu-