Evening star., 1948-09-11
Queen Wilhelmina Owns
No Washington Real Estate
=. n. r4,.ar AZ m. st.r.

In letter to your paper, which was pub
lished in The Star Of September 2, G. A.
Leimbach suggested that the European Re-
covery Program Act should be so revised or
amended by Congress as to require countries
that are recipients under this act ito divest
the wealthy citizens within their borders Of
some Of their holdings" and to decrease the
amounts allotted to those countries with the
revenue 50 obtained.
This suggestion to confiscate or appropriate
private property lawfully acquired and owned
by citizens, who moreover pay their extremely
heavy taxes on both property and income,
seems to me so entirely at variance with the
concept of private property generally accepted
in the United States, that I do not see any
need to bring forward arguments against 1t.
I am confident that In the United States Mr..
Leimbach's suggestion will not find any serious
consideration, the less so since all residents Of
the Netherlands have to give up their dollar
income to the state tand also certain classes
of dollar -securities), for which the state
reimburses them in Netherlands guilders, the
dollars being used to pay Netherlands debts
to the United States.
In Ills letter he mentioned as "a case in
point" the private means of the former Queen
Wilhelmina OF the Netherlands, saying ut
was reported a few weeks ago in The Star
that her personal estate is valued at some-
thing like $157 000, 000." I consider it neces-
sary to deny the truth Of this statement;
it has no foundation at ALL Whatever private
means Queen Wilhelmina owns, it can be
stated that the aforementioned astronomi-
cal figure is exaggerated to an extent which
makes its use worthless.
Owns No Real Estate Here.
Mr.. Leimbach refers apparently to a story
which The Star published on August 8,
written by the Chicago Daily News foreign
services correspondent, william McGafnn,
from The Hague about the royal family
of the Netherlands. 1t is very good
story and every Dutch citizen would read
it with satisfaction, with one exception.
Mr.. McGafin writes "Wilhelmina is q multi
millionaires and one of the richest women
in the world. One American in Holland esti-
mated her total wealth at s175,000,000. In
c!uded in her holding is large block of apart
ments in Washington, and numerous Amer
ican stocks and bonds"
1t seems very difficult to kill once and for
al the false rumor that Queen Wilhelmina.
now Princess OF the Netherlands, owns the
Westchester Apartments in Washington or at
least part of it. This story has been coming
up again ard again for a number Of years and
1 have been told that it was an invention
OF German propaganda against the Queen
in the beginning of the last war: If not, it
is just gossip.
However that may be, welcome this oppor-
tunity to state that Queen Wilhelmfna never
owned the Westchester Apartments or even
one share in it. This statement, confirmed by
the management of the Westchester Apart
ments, is based on authoritative information
received from the Netherlands. In fact, Queen
Wilhelmina does not own any real estate IN
the United States.
am convinced that by publishing this letter
you will make a valuable contribution toward
correcting rumors which should not be circu-
lated because they completely lack foundation
in fact and even might do harm If they are
used by uninformed persons for purposes which
further neither the interests of the United
States nor those of my country. - 3
E. N VAN KLEFFENS,
Ambassador of the Netherlands.
Editors Note-The story regarding Queen
Wilhelmina's alleged ownership of Washing
ton real estate has been printed In one form
or another many times. The Stars atten-
ton has been previously called to the de-
mails by authorized representatives OF the
Netherlands that there is any truth to
these stories and it is matter of regret to
The Star that the error was inadvertently
repeated in its columns.