Gross Deutschland:: La Belgique et la Hollande. Par L. Pickard.
(Brussels and Paris : Van Oast. 3 fr. net.)—This is in the main a study of Dutch neutrality and of the efforts of the German propa- gandists in Holland. M. Pickard thinks that most Dutchmen dislike and despise the Germans, and that, though the Dutch are unsym- pathetic to Great Britain, they have always hoped for an Allied victory in their own interest and in the interest of Belgium. M. Pierard shows that the Allies, and even this country, have some good friends in Holland, but he underestimates, we fear, the pro. German bias of the official classes as a whole, who admire and try to imitate the German bureaucracy. One reason why Germany did not occupy Holland for the sake of her harbours and foodstuffs is now apparent ; the Emperor wanted to keep open a convenient back-door by which he could escape to the fancied security of a Dutch country house if fate proved adverse to him on the Western Front. M. Pierard says that the Dutch Government has long cherished the hope that it would play a great part in the Peace Congress, which, it assumed, would be held at the Hague. But Holland, like the Pope, is regarded with such well-founded sus- picion by the Allies that this scheme has fallen through.
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