File No. 763.72119/99
The Minister in the Netherlands (Van Dyke) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 8.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose herewith a copy of the memorandum of reply (Memorie van Antwoord) made by the Netherlands Government in writing on November 15 in answer to the preliminary report of the Chamber of Deputies.1 I enclose therewith a résumé in English of the principal points in this memorandum as given by the Gazette de Hollande of November 16.1 I have compared this résumé with the Dutch text, and find that it is adequate to give the full significance of the document.
I would call your attention to the following facts:
- (1)
- The Government is considering the possibility of the partial demobilization of the army.
- (2)
- The Government is making strenuous and special efforts to put a stop to smuggling into Germany.
- (3)
- The Government also intends to go forward with the legislative program which it announced when it took office, and it regards the constitutional revision as the main point of the ministerial program. This revision has relation to the [Page 84] broadening of the suffrage, including partial suffrage for women, and the settlement of the education question on the basis of a compromise.
But the most important point in the declaration of the Ministry is the paragraph in regard to peace mediation. The Ministry declares its opinion very clearly on this subject. It declines to undertake any peace mediation which might for one or another reason be regarded with suspicion by either of the belligerents, as a movement prompted by self-interest, or by the interest of the other belligerent party. The Government feels strongly that it should not allow its desire for peace to lure it into the taking of premature steps, which would have no other results than to compromise the position of the country and to hinder the end striven after.
In my opinion this statement expresses very clearly the careful judgment of the thoughtful and unbiased people in the Netherlands.
The rumors of peace negotiations carried on here, which have been floating through the newspapers during the past few months, are, so far as I know, entirely without foundation. Most of them have been so absurd upon their face (for example the rumor that Baron d’ Estournelles de Constant and Monsieur Caillaux had come together to The Hague to discuss terms of peace), that I have not thought it necessary or desirable to write to you denying them.
I have [etc.]