In none of her unwilling provinces does the Third Reich find stiffer, more stubborn resistance than in The Netherlands. Focus of stolid Dutch hatred of the Nazis is a secret society called "Les Gueux" (The Beggars), blamed by the Germans for recent widespread riots. Fortnight ago, breathing brimstone, a German military court sent 18 of the Beggars to face a firing squad, imprisoned 19 more, hoped without conviction it had broken the Beggars' back.
Formed in the 16th Century to harass Spanish conquerors, Les Gueux was revived last year by students of the Nazi-shuttered Universities of Delft and Leiden. With them it has become a truly underground organization, with many of its members hiding out in cellars of bomb-wrecked buildings.
With as many shibboleths and countersigns as a dime novel, the Beggars have methods as effective as they are penny-dreadful. Routine and deadly are sniping isolated German soldiers, drowning them in convenient canals. "Moffen (slang for Germans) cocktails" spiked with sulfuric acid were served so freely that Germans no longer care to drink in public bars. Other favorites: poisoned pencils to be jabbed into Germans in crowds or the darkness of theatres, strychnine crystals dropped into plates of food from under the fingernails.
Mysterious chief of the Beggars is "Colonel Verdun," said to be a 43-year-old Army officer. He is supposed to direct the less spectacular activities, signaling British planes, guiding, sheltering and giving information to British agents.
Almost as annoying to the Nazis as the Beggars' lethal pranks is the uncompromising stiff-neckedness of all Hollanders. Typical of the Dutch attitude was the banquet given for the Germans by the Burgomaster of Breda, Barthelomeus W. Th. van Slobbe, onetime Governor of Curacao and a student of history. Compelled to throw an official party for the invaders, Van Slobbe served up a curious meal, topped it off with a flowery archaistic speech. Next day the Germans found he had copied menu and oratory verbatim from a similar occasion after the French conquered Breda in 1793.