Amsterdam is the city of drab workmen who cut and polish brightest diamonds, the home of landlubbing watermen who pole barges along slow canals, the habitat of buxom and sensible stenographers who pedal to work each morning upon thousands of bicycles. Amsterdam, in short, is the last place where one would expect to hear—during the decent forenoon hours, and from a stately mansion—a sequence of revolver shots.
The mansion where bullets pinged and splintered, last week, was that of socially elect Mynheer and Mevrouw Van Eeghen. Servants rushed in to find him shot dead, and her unconscious from a bullet wound in the head. A single revolver lay smoking on the floor. . . .
Soon Dutch newshawks gave the tragedy world interest by rushing off to scribble that Mevrouw Van Eeghen is the niece of mighty Sir Henri Deterding, Director General of the internationally potent Royal Dutch Shell (Oil) Group. Shrewder newshawks stressed Mevrouw Van Eeghen's unique distinction; she was, last week, the only female member of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. To find a similar business woman in the U. S. one must search out pretty, audacious Miss Peggy Cleary of Manhattan (TIME, April 2), the spinster-stockholder who bid $375,000, last fortnight, in an effort to obtain a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. In Amsterdam the buzz of tickers ceased to have meaning, last week, for Mevrouw Van Eeghen. Removed to a hospital, she lay at first unconscious, and later sphinxlike by advice of her attorneys. Her husband, forgotten by the press, had been a rich, respected rubber merchant of the firm of Matthes & Bormeester.
In London close-lipped Sir Henri Deterding said: "I can throw no light upon this sad affair."
Paradoxically light was being thrown upon Sir Henri himself, last week, from Manhattan. There President Richard Airey of the Asiatic Petroleum Co., a Royal Dutch subsidiary, declared: "I wish to dispel a popular illusion that Sir Henri Deterding has changed his nationality from Dutch to British. . . . Living principally in England, as he does, he prefers to be known by his British title . . . but he has never changed his nationality. . . .
"Further it should be pointed out that the Charter of the Royal Dutch Co. requires that all its officers and directors be Dutch subjects. . . ."
Commenting further, Mr. Airey denied that the British Government owns any share in Royal Dutch, but stated his belief that it owns 56% of the common stock of the rival Anglo-Persian Oil Company.