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Show GERMAN PRINCE FOiiLLAND The Hague, Netherlands, Nov. 30. Only two lives, those of the reigning reign-ing Queen and of her seven-year-old daughter, Princess Juliana, bar the way in the natural order of things to the accession to the throne of the Netherlands of a German prince. It is true that, so far as health and age are concerned, those lives may be described de-scribed as "first class," but the potential po-tential slenderness of the thread was Illustrated not long ago in the Hague woods, where the royal automabile carrying Queen Wilhelminn and the little Princess was the victim of a col-Hslon col-Hslon that might under less fortunate circumstances have cost the lives of both. This question of tho succession gave Dutchmen some concern before the war, and much more now. Several well known public men have drawn public attention to the matter in the last few days, and what looks like a strong agitation, enjoying widespread sympathy, has been started for a revision re-vision of the Constitution declaring null and void all potential rights of succession of foreign princes, leaving the choice of a new sovereign, in such an unhoped-for and unexpected circumstance cir-cumstance as the failure of all direct hflra tn thf fhrnnn pnfirftlv in tho States General or Parliament of the country. For every Dutchman, practically prac-tically without exception, whatever be his sympathies in the present war, would regard the accession of a German Ger-man price as a calamity, threatening the so dearly-cherished Independence of the nation. In the House of Orange, Holand is blessed with a., dynasty bound to Hol-( land and Holland alone by such' strong ties that no one al home or abroad would dream of suggesting that the council chambers of the crown are accessible to other than purely Dutch interests. But if that house were left without living issue, the next claimants to the throne would be found among the collateral princely houses of Saxe-Weimar and Rouss-Kostritz, followed or accompanied accompan-ied by those of Saxe-Meinigen, Hohen-zollern, Hohen-zollern, another branch of Reus-Kos-trltz, Schleswig-Holsteln, Norway. Sahcumburg-Lippe, Sweden and Wied one and all equally foreign to The Netherlands. Prof. J. A. Van Hamel, a distinguished distin-guished authority on law, declares in the Amsterdam: "This game of inter ests with German royal relations on foreign thrones must teach us that small powers should beware if they do not desire to see, in their highest government gov-ernment circles, foreign aims that might be pernicious to them put in place of their national interests. Is tho fact sufficiently reckoned, with that, according to the present constitutional consti-tutional regulation of the succession to the throne, the successive princes called to the throne after Princess Juliana are all of German families, mostly officers in the German army, naturally all attached heart and soul and bound to the Germany policy? Monarchical coupling of this country to another, by a prince who could hardly be anything but an imperial prince-envoy, and who might be admonished ad-monished from abroad to bear himself 'like a good German,' of whom, moreover, more-over, nothing is known here save that he has not the slightest relations with this country, would be a very serious matter for the coming times." As regards the exact form that the proposed constitutional revision j should take, Prof. D. P. D. Fnblus, yet another writer on the subject, argues in favor of simply putting all possible claimants besides Princess Juliana out of court, of binding the country in no way to any house or person outside the offspring of Wilhelmlna, and thus in case of the necessity occurring leaving the states general, an unquestionably unques-tionably free choice in the matter. On the other hand, Prof. H. Louis Israels, a well-known publicist, wants to take i a cue from the American constitution, which itself borrowed so much from Dutch political law, in its prescription that only a born American can be elected head of the state. He would have the rule laid down that only those who were born and had remained remain-ed Hollanders would by right of inheritance inher-itance succeed to the throne of the Netherlands. No sign has yet been made by the government as to whether they would contemplate taking up the matter at this juncture. Probably a good deal depends upon the view entertained at the royal palace. I on |
