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Some American Reactions
Press and radio comments on the Queen's plans for a Netherlands Commonwealth
John B. Hughes over Wor and Mutual Network
December 6, 1942
... It is not probable nor possible that this Netherlands Commonwealth will spring full-bloom into existence the moment the war is over; a period of transition from war to peace, from Colonial Empire to Commonwealth undoubtedly will take place. But the practical working-out of the problem is of less importance at this time than Queen Wilhelmina's desire and willingness to bring about the change of status for her colonial Empire. What is important is her recognition of the vast changes taking place in the world. Her acknowledgement that the Netherlands East Indies has earned, by its suffering and resistance, its right to participate in the decision regarding the form of Netherlands responsibility as a nation toward the world and of the various groups of the population towards themselves and one another.
Herein is recognized one of the primary principles of post-war organization for peace-a principle not yet fully clarified for the American people, who are now being bombarded by a set of misleading statements to the effect that we are going to waste our substance on the world by playing Santa Claus to mankind. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mankind, in the first place, does not want a Santa Claus. . . . What the peoples of the world do want is something every American wants, too-a chance to help themselves-the opportunity to develop their resources, their commerce, their civil and political freedom. It is this opportunity which Queen Wilhelmina proposes to give to all the Colonial parts of her Empire....
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WM. Philip Simms in the New York World Telegram
December 7, 1942
Whatever feats of arms may be performed on the world's battlefields on this first anniversary of Pearl Harbor, history is likely to record that it was a woman, Queen Wilhelmina of Holland, who struck the day's most telling blow at the Axis. For her announcement of an equal partnership among the four parts of her realm will do more to give life to the war aims of the Allies than any other single act yet performed by the United Nations. The Atlantic Charter now begins to take on real meaning. . . .
This announcement of Queen Wilhelmina I am informed on high authority is no mere gesture. . . . Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria of Orange-Nassau, now 62 and a grandmother, will go down in history as one of the world's great Queens.
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San Francisco, Calif. Chronicle
December 8, 1942
Queen Wilhelmina's promise of postwar partnership for the four divisions of the Netherlands empire stands against a pre-war background of steady Dutch advancement of Holland's colonial subjects and their share in government.
The record of Dutch colonial administration in the last 50 years has represented a vast change from the earlier period of pure exploitation. The Dutch have been bringing the East Indians along toward political responsibility in very sound fashion and probably as fast as it could be done with justice to the natives, the majority of whom never have been and are not now politically conscious.
The present attitude of the Javanese and Sumatrans under Japanese occupation, very disappointing to the Japanese, is good evidence of the large degree of confidence the Dutch had been winning from the natives. The modern Dutch have recognized their responsibility to these Asiatics brought under their charge by events of the past and have been trying to discharge it with integrity.
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New York Herald Tribune
December 8, 1942
When Mr. Churchill rather brusquely announced last month that he had no intention of presiding ‘over the liquidation of the British Empire,’ he continued, as
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some fail to remember, to define his concept of that empire. To him it is.... a ‘wonderful association of states and races spread over the globe....’ If the British Empire does not everywhere as yet fulfill this ideal of voluntary association for mutual development, support and welfare, the Prime Minister's words clearly show that it must and will continue to move toward that end....
Queen Wilhelmina has marked the anniversary of the Japanese attack by a notable statement, plainly defining a similar development for the Netherlands empire. As she points out, precise plans cannot, of course, be laid down while both Holland and the Indies are gagged and bound by the invader. But the statement envisages as a minimum the reconstruction of the empire into a commonwealth of the dominion type....
The point, however, lies in the precise form which the reconstruction will take than in the Queen's recognition of the principle that the old imperial structures must develop into free and equal associations of the peoples who compose them....
The application of the principle must obviously take widely varied forms, where so many different peoples and groups, so many different conditions and historical backgrounds, so many varied cultures are concerned. It can range from partnership to autonomy or to complete independence as circumstances may dictate. One thing, however, should be remembered. For all their vices, the old empires, as instruments for maintaining order, promoting health, education and trade had a value. The problem of the future is certainly not to disorganize the world but to organize it better than before. In voluntarizing the associations represented by the imperial systems it is important not to destroy the much that was valuable in the association. And in the world after the war the necessities of mutual defense and rehabilitation will force a closer association in many ways between peoples, whether they are legally independent or not....
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Holyoke, Mass. Transcript Telegram
December 8, 1942
Queen Wilhelmina is out ahead of Winston Churchill announcing the creation of a post-war Netherlands that must certainly sound good to Wendell Willkie.
The Dutch Empire would become the Netherlands Commonwealth.
There would be four parts-Holland, the Netherlands East Indies, Curaçao and Surinam.
The plan as stated by the Queen would ‘give the kingdom and its parts the strength to carry fully their responsibility both internally and externally.’
The Queen doesn't want to state any precise form for the political reconstruction of the Netherlands. She wants both Holland and the Netherlands East Indies to state their views first.
If Winston Churchill could in some way get at the same intellectual and political position that Wilhelmina has attained he might find the going easier in Burma, Malaya and India.
... There is no question but that the Queen's statement will give cheer to the conquered peoples of the Dutch East Indies and Holland both.
She has found time to give serious thought to the new world order that is going to be and she has shaped it in the way that Mr. Willkie advocated when he was leaving China and had talked with the Generalissimo and Mme. Chiang Kaishek and those representatives of the Asiatic peoples who are looking to China as their deliverer.
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Louisville Courier JNL.
December 8, 1942
A second great commonwealth of nations is in the making according to Queen Wilhelmina's prophecy of a four-part Netherlands commonwealth which will succeed the old Netherlands Empire in the post-war world. Plans for the commonwealth are a logical development of the enlightened colonial policy of the Netherlands and are, according to Queen Wilhelmina, merely a continuance of discussions looking to the same end which were inaugurated before the war.
It is significant that the new arrangement will be neither clarified nor ratified before the people of the four countries concerned can express their opinion. There is to be no coercion, and no decisions will be made in advance by rulers presuming to speak for people unable to voice an opinion.
The promise of such a development, leaving, according to the Queen, ‘no room for discrimination according to race or nationality, only the ability of the individual citizens and the needs of the various groups....’ as determinants of public policy, is a heartening example of the anxious willingness of the world's great democracies to make the Atlantic Charter a living reality.
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Chicago, Illinois SUN
December 9, 1942
... The Dutch today realize that there must be changes after the war, and the Queen has proposed a Netherlands Commonwealth of Nations....
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We do not doubt that Queen Wilhelmina speaks in good faith. We hope, nevertheless, that a much more convincing program for elevation of Holland's old empire to freedom will be devised by the United Nations and guided by an association of free nations after complete victory in the war has dislodged Japan from the East Indies.
Certainly the Netherlands East Indies, which contain most of the humanity and treasure of Holland's empire, are not ready now for genuine independence. It will not make them independent to call them that.... The overwhelming majority of the people are political infants, admirable human beings but unable to take over the full task of government and defense....
We believe that the Indies and all other politically backward regions should be speeded on the way to independence. If that is to be accomplished it is necessary that their people be educated for it, rapidly. An international organization can far better accomplish that purpose than any single ruling power. Since the success and speed of the education of the ward means a progressive lessening of the privileges of the warden, it is too much to expect Holland or any other imperial power, acting alone, to bend its maximum effort to the task.
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Des Moines, IA. Register
December 9, 1942
Queen Wilhelmina's radio address promising a new ‘Commonwealth’ type constitution for the Kingdom of the Netherlands and its overseas possessions is no tardy repentance of a deposed ruler. It is a project toward which she and her advisers were working long before the Dutch empire was even threatened.
Back in 1922.... the Netherlands Indies and the two American colonies of Surinam and Curaçao were declared equal in rank with the Dutch Netherlands in Europe, as parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
This was a symbolic act rather than a real transfer of power, for governors from the European Netherlands remained the real rulers of the ‘equal’ territories. But at least it represented a trend.
Advisory legislatures in the overseas portions of the ‘Kingdom’ have since been given more and more functions, and the power of the governors to override the legislatures has been used less and less. By the time of the Japanese conquest, Dutch were still over-represented in the East Indies legislature in proportion to population, but they were definitely a minority....
A year and a half ago, before Japan came into the European war, Queen Wilhelmina outlined the steps which would be taken as soon as the war was over to revise the constitution of both the ‘Commonwealth’ and its component parts-in order to make it a Commonwealth in fact as well as on paper. Now the Queen is merely reassuring them that the Japanese conquest will not affect the promise in any way.
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Washington Post
December 9, 1942
While the doctrine of self-determination is recognized as one of the great United Nations war aims, the fact cannot be ignored that not all peoples are ready for freedom and self-government. In addition, the fact must be considered that no good end would be served and much evil might result if through a drastic implementation of this clause in the Atlantic Charter the world were Balkanized to the point where effective international society becomes impossible.
For this reason we must regard as a great contribution to constructive statesmanship the proposal made by Queen Wilhelmina regarding the future government of the far-flung Netherlands empire.
The key to this forward looking plan will probably be found in the phrase ‘Combination of independence and collaboration.’ That key can unlock the door to a constructive solution of the colonial problem. It is also the key to an orderly world society. If the world of the future is to be a better, happier, more peaceful world than the world of the past, the emphasis upon internal freedom must be counterbalanced by an equal emphasis upon external collaboration. The rule which Queen Wilhelmina hopes to see established in the future Netherlands Commonwealth of Nations has implications for the entire world.
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Christian Science Monitor
December 9, 1942
The statement by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands on the post-war status of the Dutch ‘kingdom’ (empire) is profoundly democratic.
That in itself is significant for the native populations now tasting Japanese ‘co-prosperity.’ But also for peoples now fighting to combine freedom with security Queen Wilhelmina's statement is meaningful. The plan she outlines would not only greatly advance self-government but would set up in the world one more closely integrated system of collective security which could
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take its place as part of that broader system which must defend world peace after this war. The Dutch kingdom would become a second Commonwealth of Nations similar to that which has evolved from the British Empire.
Thus Queen Wilhelmina's statement helps to light two indistinct phases of postwar development. It shows how the principles of the Atlantic Charter can be applied in the Pacific and promises that the benefits of that document will not be limited, as some of its critics have feared, to a favored group of nations. It also illuminates the unfolding pattern of the world beyond the war....
Queen Wilhelmina's statement is not so revolutionary as it may sound to those unfamiliar with Netherlands colonial policy. In the first twenty-five years of Wilhelmina's reign-she has ruled the Dutch kingdom for some forty-four years-the Hollanders' attitude toward Indonesian natives underwent a fundamental change....
This is not to say that Dutch attitudes have kept pace with native demands. But the Dutch have shown a readiness to educate the natives for political leadership and responsibility, and have permitted them to acquire experience in government through councils so organized as to provide important places for native leaders.
Whatever the shortcomings of colonial rule by the white races in the past, we now know that a mere relinquishment of control of colonial areas could only lead to something much worse. Yet it is encouraging that two great colonial powers, Britain and the Netherlands, are alike committed to something more than a return to the status quo after the war.
British opinion has long recognized such a return to be impossible. Its pledge of freedom to India and its surrender of extraterritorial rights in China are proof of this. Queen Wilhelmina's statement shows that what is happening in the British Empire is part of a world trend. It helps to assure all peoples that the trend will be well established before this war is over.
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Hartford, Conn. Courant
December 10, 1942
A recent speech by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands indicates very clearly that she and the members of her government do not expect the postwar world to be anything like a mere restoration of the world that preceded the war.... The Dutch Queen resolutely welcomes changes that she regards as inevitable.
Although wisely disclaiming possession of any detailed blueprints for the future of her still-enslaved kingdom, the Queen was emphatic in her assertion that the days of the pre-war colonial system were definitely numbered. The reason for that conviction could perhaps never be put in more felicitous words than those of the Queen herself when she said; ‘I know that no political unit nor national cohesion can continue to exist which is not supported by the voluntary acceptance and the faith of the great majority of the citizenry....’
In affirming the contemplated abandonment by the Netherlands of its former colonial system, the Queen did not, however, indicate any complete severance of the ties with the Dutch East Indies, or the Dutch possessions in this hemisphere. In the world that she and her ministers now contemplate, the Netherlands still will have a peculiar and intimate connection with its former colonies, even though they are transformed as internally autonomous members of a globe-girdling Netherlands Commonwealth of Nations, similar to the British Commonwealth of Nations. Nor is there much reason to doubt that such an arrangement may be far more advantageous to the people of the Netherlands East Indies, to mention only the most important of the colonial possessions, than any absolute independence, for which they presumably are none too well prepared.
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Youngstown, O. Vindicator
December 11, 1942
No United Nations leader has given more thought to post-war planning than has the exiled Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Her temperate voice is an inspiration to men concerned with the peace, and a tacit rebuke to others who think first and foremost of revenge against defeated peoples. The Queen's recent statements, at the Herald Tribune Forum in New York, and from London on the first anniversary of the Pacific war, are sane and far-sighted contributions to the discussions of war aims that must precede victory.
In her broadcast address from London, Queen Wilhelmina outlined the creation of a postwar Netherlands ‘Commonwealth.’...
Queen Wilhelmina's vision in proposing these postwar changes for her empire may have a salutary effect on Allied peace discussions everywhere. It is in line with her
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message read to the Herald Tribune forum, warning against revenge as a guiding motive in dealing with the defeated Axis peoples....
This voice in the midst of war, is heartening to those who recognize the terrible suffering Queen Wilhelmina's country has endured at Hitler's hands. If she can plan her people's future and discuss the fate of her enemies ‘with malice toward none,’ it is the best of all proofs that the United Nations aspire to a better world cleansed of past social and political inequities.
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Time Magazine
December 14, 1942
Mightier democracies continued pussyfooting on postwar plans, but last week the squareheaded Dutch went on record. Their good Queen Wilhelmina flatly rejected Empire, plunked for Commonwealth....
To the Atlantic Charter Wilhelmina thus gave bone, meat, flavor....
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Washington Star
December 15, 1942
The announcement by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands concerning the future status of Holland's empire shows once again the validity of the old saying that ‘you can't beat the Dutch.’
In the midst of war the Queen and her Government have taken a long look into the post-war world and projected a globegirdling Netherlands ‘Commonwealth’ in which Holland, the Dutch East Indies and the two new world regions of Surinam and Curaçao each will be the ‘partner’ of the other. The yearning toward political freedom and freedom from want both are to be satisfied as much as possible. The roots of local life in the thickly populated Indies are to be preserved. Educational advantages for the Indonesians are to be augmented. Apparatus for giving each of the territories political control over its own domestic affairs is to be set up... The Netherlands Government is providing a model in action....
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Philadelphia Record
December 15, 1942
Queen Wilhelmina of Holland has made an important contribution to United Nations' strength in Asia by her statement on the future of the Dutch Empire.... Queen Wilhelmina's statement is a hopeful indication that we are beginning to approach the problem and willing to consider the best interests of native populations.
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