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Show DUTCH AN' GUY. The Netherlands mi-rnniciil, nu do-.ilit nude the stress of the German uieiiacej continues to denounce the seizure ni' Jhltch shi,s ,y (he Tniled States and the enlente allies. Amid the l.arr:u,'e of words which the statesmen states-men .,f Tlie Ilaeiie employ certain salient sa-lient facts .land out. first of all, the action tnl:eu l,y the t'liit'-l S'ate-. u a s in accordance with i ii terua; ion;-1 law an-l had for prece. -lent lots ot' the l'rn..ian con CI nmeitt luring' tlie I'l a ii'-o I'l ii-,ia 11 war. Secondly. Sec-ondly. I In- el i;er!a ii. 1 . rev oI;e. the a;.-i nl nitii i.icat Britain and lie- I nit' -1 State., concern i u t lie - iim- o ! I I- s f.. fcie, In eo-lie to fl liev. agreement, thus giving help to Ger-ma Ger-ma ny. In its latest statement, the Dutch eovernmeut declares that it could not accept the new proposals, because they involved violations of neutrality. Anion;,' these violations, we are told, would he the arming of the Dutch ships and the transportation of troops on these ships from the United States and Great Dritain for use in Europe against Germany. Tt is doubtful whether our government govern-ment intended to transport any troops on these vessels, but we have no desire de-sire to split hairs, and may concede at once that whether troops were transported by Dutch ships or not, the effect would be the same: for Dutch ships, even, though not used as transports, trans-ports, would replace American or allied al-lied ships pressed into the transport service. The Dutch should not lose sight of the fact that their ships will be used for exactly the same trade they themselves them-selves would employ them in. Moreover, More-over, ships, tied up in Dutch harbors u ill be permitted to trade freely. And in return for the use of the ships, Holland Hol-land will get foodstuffs which it could not obtain if hundreds of thousands of tons of shipping should remain idle. We have just said that the ships now-tied now-tied up in Dutch harbors would be Krmitted to trade freely. We must modify that statement somewhat. German Ger-man submarines will continue to sink neutral ships, tmd among them the Dutch ships. In this way the Germans will commit a series of unneutral acts against Holland, as she has done in the past, but the Netherlands government, we fear,' will continue to deplore acts of unneutrality against Germany. The sensitiveness of the Dutch government, gov-ernment, about neutrality at this time is in marked contrast to their entire complacency when Germany, last year, shipped hundreds of tons of cement through Holland into Belgium and northern France, there to be used for the construction of German defences. Moreover, Holland, of her surplus, has been supplying Germany with raw materials, ma-terials, not only for peaceful industries, but for war factories. The people of the United States fully ful-ly reaiir.e the unfortunate position of the Dutch and deeply sympathize with them, but that does not constitute a reason why we should not defend ourselves our-selves against unjust aspersion nor a reason why we should not point out the acts of- unneutrality committed against us by the Hollanders, even though those aits were forced upon them. |