After watching their fifth column's maneuvers for three weeks (TIME, May 6 et ante), Dutch military authorities last week swooped down on suspect strongholds in The Hague, Haarlem, Amsterdam. They carted away and interned 21 Nazis, Communists, etc., including National Socialist Party Editor M. M. Rost van Tonninggen, member of The Netherlands Second Chamber. That something was afoot in the Low Countries was indicated by the fact that within 24 hours the Belgian Government put visa requirements in effect on her Netherlands and Luxembourg frontiers, arrested two Flemish Nationalists.
In a short-wave broadcast, Dutch Premier Dirk Jan de Geer called the 21 arrested fifth columnists "dangerous to the peace and security" of The Netherlands, declared that they were not interned because of their political beliefs but because of their personal conduct. Nazi Chief Anton Adrian Mussert was not arrested last week. Neither was he impressed by the Premier's speech. "I am certainly happy to be living in a democracy—in a free country," sneered Mussert.