All the corrupt and malign influences which Germany has been sedulously and treacherously exercising in neutral countries have been exerted in their worst forms in Holland. The country is honeycombed with German intrigues, and half-strangled in a network of commercial interests and obligations. The Press is practically not free, and a numbing sense of terror is spread over the population. In the long run the fate of Belgium, terrible as it has been, may be preferable to that of Holland, unless the countrymen of De Reuter and Van Tromp have the resolution to strike a blow for their honour and freedom, while there is yet time. They are in danger of becoming the vassals of a Power which has no more sympathy with the ideals of a free commonwealth than Philip II., and which has shown that it can surpass the Duke of Alva in cruelty. W. R. INGE _Dean of St. Paul’s_ [Illustration: HOLLAND TO BELGIUM “Outwardly, I must be neutral; inwardly, I am full of pity and sympathy.”] A Conflict of Testimony Just so! The Huns pay the price of lies by being constrained “to lie on still.” But, sooner or later--sooner, perhaps, than they think--their lies will come home to roost. The great gullible Hun public, the slaves of an iron discipline, will learn the truth. No people in the history of the world has been so consummately befooled, so systematically humbugged. One wonders what the awakening will be like? The army, if we may credit the testimony of some prisoners, is just beginning to ask questions; the women of Hunland are on the ragged edge of revolt. The Junkers, it is true, sit heavily upon public opinion, the safety-valve of every nation. Meanwhile, hidden forces are accumulating strength. A cataclysmic explosion must take place. And then the savage instincts of the great blonde beast, instincts fostered by an intelligence perverted to evil, will glut themselves to satiety. La Carmagnole will be danced in Berlin. As with individuals, so with nations--the most terrible humiliations come from within. HORACE ANNESLEY VACHELL [Illustration: A CONFLICT OF TESTIMONY “Sire, it’s quite easy: for every witness who swears we’ve murdered innocent people we will produce two who will swear they did not see it.”] The Ferocious Bellicose Party Mynheer van Ploomp, Frau van Ploomp, and Fräulein van Ploomp sitting censoriously on the newspaper, _may_ be raging for their country to come into the war, but they certainly don’t look like it. One can never judge, of course, by outside appearances, but the casual observer might reasonably infer from the surface look of things that Mynheer had not done so very badly by keeping out of the scrap.