The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-11-06
THE BElGIUM-HOLlAND ROW

Sioux City Journal-The dispute be-
tween Holland and Belgium is the
tester Of one of the unsolved prob
lens of the war. Yet it did not come
directlv before the peace conference
because Holland was not in any way
involved in the war, The dispute is
really a matter for adjustment between
the W countries outside the settle
ment Of peace. There are two items
concerned in the dispute. The most
important one involves control Of the
Scheldt river. This stream flows
through Belgium past Antwerp, the
industrial center of the nation. This
city has a river harbor in which the
largest ocean going ships can anchor.
The Scheldt at this point begins to
widen into an estuary. A few miles
farther down the stream, the bound
airy line between Holland and Belgium
crosses the river, which here branches
into two large estuaries forming an
island between the two and the sea.
Holland, under the terms of a treaty
with Belgium made in 1889, owns a
strip of land on the south side of the
west estuary or river, below the point
where the boundary crosses that
stream, so that from the point where
the line crosses to the open sea, Hol-
land owns both sides of the stream.
The river or estuary is from three to
five miles wide, so that the three-mile
international limit does not apply. It
opens to the sea through Holland ter
ritory. By having control of both sides
of the outlet of the river, Holland IL
able to impose whatever terms she
can on the imports and exports which
go in and u by that route. She is
able to control the exports of Antwerp
and to regulate the imports which
reach its factories in the form of raw
materials. Under the existing treaty
the limits of this regulation are fixed.
But Belgium is working on the theory
that in case of war the treaty would
not be holding and that Holland could
close the river entirely and thereby
blockade Antwerp and the smaller
cities whose m reaches the
open sea through the Antwerp port.
Belgium wants to acquire the HOLLAND
territory lying on the south side of the
river below the point where the pres
ent line crosses the stream. With
this, it wants the use Of the stream,
or in other words, 1t would make the
division line the water mark on the
Holland side. This change would give
passing through Holland waters.
The other item in the controversy
is a strip Of land, taken by Holland
under the same treaty, which projects
southwark between Belgium and Ger
many. At one point this strip is only
five miles wide, but broadens out
farther south. Belgium claims this
projection would be used as a military
road by Germany in the event of an
other invasion Of Belgium, and that
under the terms of the treaty of 1889,
Belgium cannot fortify or defend its
border at this place against Germany,
because the guns would have to point
against Holland territory. 1t is a
duplication of the Mexican border
trouble in this country. In the retreat
of the German army after it's collapse
in Flanders, many of the fugitievs
reached Germany by fleeing across
this headland in violation of the neu-
trality of Holland.
In return for the cession to Belgium
of these two sections of Holland terri
tory and the control of the Scheldt
river by Belgium, it is proposed to
cede to Holland some territory taken
from Germany and inhabited largely
by Hollanders. Holland does not want
to trade. She does not want to sur
render the territory or the controi
Of the river. The negotiations have
resulted in the present strained rela-
tons between the two governments.
Unless some adjustment is reached
they may result in a new disturbance
of European affairs.