378 



NETHERLANDS. 



eight and a half months led Lieut. -Gen. K. Eland 

 to resign the Ministry of War on March 13. The 

 term of eight months which Gen. Eland consid- 

 ered sufficient for the training of a soldier, an 

 opinion in which the commanders of the army did 

 not agree, was actually in force three years. Not 

 wishing to bind his successors, he did not make 

 the legal period eight months, but in the bill 

 fixed it at twelve months, leaving it optional with 

 the military authorities to reduce it to eight 

 months if they deemed it unnecessary to keep 

 the soldiers longer under arms. The Radicals in 

 the Second Chamber, who agreed with the Min- 

 ister of War, sought by their amendment to com- 

 pel him to stand up for the principle that he had 

 advocated and practised for years, and when he 

 refused to take the responsibility, by carrying the 

 amendment with 47 votes to 44 they compelled 

 him to resign, the Catholics and the Socialists 

 joining them in defeating the minister. J. A. 

 Roell, the Minister of Marine, took the portfolio 

 ad interim until it was given to Gen. Kool, who 

 accepted the amendment subject to restrictions. 

 The elections intervened before the questions con- 

 nected with military reform were decided. In the 

 municipal and provincial elections gains were 

 made by both the Catholics and the Socialists at 

 the expense of the old Liberal or Moderate party, 

 indicating a reversal of the last verdict of the 

 country, which gave the Liberals a clear majority 

 of only 2, or 52 seats to 45 won by the Catholics 

 and Protestants and 3 by the Socialists. The Lib- 

 eral majority had already disappeared, they hav- 

 ing lost 2 seats in by-elections to the Right, which 

 was composed of 22 Catholics and 25 Anti-Revo- 

 lutionists. The Liberal party was divided, the 

 Moderate section having in February rejected a 

 program embracing universal suffrage for both 

 sexes, separation of church and state, and tariff 

 reform, which caused many Radicals to join the 

 Socialists or to stand aloof. The Left was split 

 up into the Moderate Liberals, the Advanced Lib- 

 erals, the Radicals, the Democratic Liberals, 

 and the Social Democrats, all of whom put 

 candidates into the field for the first ballot, the 

 second ballot being confined by law to the two 

 candidates who obtained the highest number of 

 votes. A dwelling-house act, supplementary to a 

 public-health act that previously became law, 

 provides for the appointment of a commission of 

 medical and lay members to inspect the houses of 

 the poor and for the erection in populous centers 

 of special dwellings having more rooms, more 

 breathing space, and brighter surroundings than 

 those now existing. A considerable proportion 

 of the laboring people of Holland have been ac- 

 customed to live in houses consisting of one room 

 and an attic. The bill empowers the parish coun- 

 cils to order the demolition of houses found to 

 be insanitary and a menace to the health of the 

 neighborhood. It passed the Second Chamber by 

 a majority of G8 votes. 



The general election took place on June 12, and 

 resulted in a defeat for the old Liberals, who ob- 

 tained only 27 seats, to 25 won by the Catholics 

 and 30 by the Protestant Anti-Revolutionists, 

 while the Historic Christians, organized in 1897 to 

 protest against the Anti-Revolutionary alliance 

 of Calvinists and Catholics which they afterward 

 joined, obtained 12 seats, the Democratic Liberals 

 8, the Socialists 7, and the Christian Demo- 

 crats 1 seat. The Liberals lost 13 seats and the 

 Democratic Liberals 2, while the Protestants 

 gained 8, the Socialists 3, the Catholics 2, and 

 the Historic Christians 2. The Historic Chris- 

 tians joined the ranks of the Anti-Revolutionists, 

 of whom 24 acknowledged Dr. Kuyper as their 



leader, and 8 followed Savornin Lohman, who 

 was Prime Minister in 1890. The new Chamber 

 consisted of 58 members of the Right and 42 mem- 

 bers of the Left. As soon as the final results 

 were known the Cabinet tendered its resignation. 

 The Queen sent for Dr. Kuyper, chief of the Anti- 

 Revolutionary party and leader of the Opposition 

 in the late Chamber. He had difficulty in forming 

 a Cabinet. The Right was divided on questions 

 of public policy, although Catholic and Calvin- 

 istic Clericals were generally faithful to their 

 coalition at the polls in the last election, as the 

 Catholics had been in the preceding one, although 

 the Protestants then on the second ballots gave 

 their votes to a Liberal in preference to a Roman 

 Catholic. The Anti-Revolutionists were in favor 

 of a moderate protectionist tariff, and hoped 

 thereby to obtain funds for obligatory working 

 men's insurance and pensions w T ith state aid. The 

 Catholics, who were not reconciled to either pro- 

 tection or the proposed social reforms, claimed 

 three seats in the Cabinet. The Cabinet was con- 

 stituted on July 28, a month having elapsed since 

 the second ballot. It w r as composed as follows: 

 Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, Abra- 

 ham Kuyper; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baron 

 Melvil van Lynden; Minister of Justice, Dr. Loeff ; 

 Minister of War, J. W. Bergansius; Minister of 

 Waterstaat, Commerce, and Industry, Dr. de 

 Marez Oyens; Minister of Finance, Dr. Harte van 

 Tecklenburg; Minister of Marine, Vice-Admiral 

 Kruys; Minister of the Colonies, Dr. van Asch 

 van Wyck. M. Bergansius, who was Minister 

 of War in former Anti-Revolutionary Cabinets 

 from 1888 to 1891, was one of the Catholics ap- 

 pointed. The others were Dr. Loeff and Dr. Harte 

 van Tecklenburg. The Socialists, who were 

 largely instrumental in bringing about the sani- 

 tary reforms of the late ministry, crowned by the 

 improved dwellings act forbidding the construc- 

 tion of houses without the statutory number of 

 rooms, were deprived of the guidance of their ener- 

 getic leader, M. Troelstra, who lost his seat in 

 the elections and was replaced by M. van Kol. A 

 considerable deficit in the budget placed the ques- 

 tion of finance ahead of others and furnished the 

 new Minister of the Waterstaat with a reason for 

 withdrawing the great project of turning three- 

 fifths of the bottom of the Zuider Zee into agri- 

 cultural land and the rest into a fresh-water lake. 

 The length of canals in Holland is 1,907 miles, 

 and of other navigable waters 3,000 miles. A 

 project for draining the Zuider Zee and adding 

 thus 750 square miles to the cultivable area of the 

 kingdom has been under discussion for fifty years, 

 ever since the Lake of Haarlem was reclaimed 

 from the sea. The annexation of the Zuider Zee is 

 a work of much greater magnitude, which may 

 be carried out in sections, by enclosing one tract 

 after another with dikes and pumping the water- 

 ing the sea, or, once for all, by building a great 

 barrier dike and proceeding to reclaim the en-, 

 closed area by instalments. The latter, method 

 was preferred, and plans were made for a dike 

 to run from Wieringen to Piaam, the estimated 

 cost of this part of the work being 28,000,000 

 guilders. To raise the sea-walls, compensate the 

 fishermen of the Zuider Zee, etc., would bring the 

 total cost up to 57,000,000 guilders. A large part 

 of the Zuider Zee, 560 square miles, would remain, 

 which would become a body of fresh water, sup- 

 plying water for agricultural purposes to the ad- 

 joining districts and feeding the canals. The Min- 

 ister of the Waterstaat, Mr. Lely, introduced a 

 bill providing for the building of the great dam 

 with sluices into the North Sea in nine years 

 and the creation of two polders, or areas of dry 



