He enjoys the confidence of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands whose Foreign Minister he is. Straight and yet portly of figure, his manner is stiff-necked and blunt. His arrival to dine heavily at one of the smart, white-painted mansions at The Hague, is announced by flunkies, unctuously intoning: "Jonkheer Dr. F. Beelaerts van Blokland!"
Last week "Blunt Beelaerts," as scurrilous U. S. correspondents term him, consented to receive the press, an infrequent condescension. Evidently his breakfast eggs, toast, cheese, preserves and cups of chocolate had been especially satisfying, for "Blunt Beelaerts" proceeded to open with a Dutch pleasantry.
"A country is like a woman," he gruffed. "A respectable woman is uninteresting. So is a country which minds its own business, pays its debts, and doesn't quarrel with its neighbors."
Though the jest seemed a trifle obscure, it had its elements of daring, for the Foreign Minister might have been referring to his Queen, his Country or both, or neither. On the whole, Jonkheer Beelaerts appeared content with his pleasantry, for he plunged at once into crisp, forthright comment: "True, gentlemen, we are adjusting a frontier dispute with our good Belgian friends. ... If I may say so without offense, it is the product of the War mentality. Belgium is claiming the two provinces lying south of the Scheldt river on the ground, that it would give them the control of the Scheldt and free the port of Antwerp from the fear of any interference in case of war. They have suggested that we take a part of Germany in compensation, but the Dutch do not desire that way. The only case in which our ownership of these provinces, which we have owned ever since Holland had a separate existence, could embarrass Belgium is in case of war between the two countries, which is unthinkable. We rely on the good sense of both sides for an eventual settlement. We expect no trouble."
Concluding with a reference to finance, Jonkheer Beelaerts said: "In 1924 we obtained an American loan of $40,000,000 which will be repaid in 1929. That loan was raised in America not because we could not get money in Holland, but as a matter of deliberate policy.
"Currencies were crashing all around us, and while the guilder held firm [at about 40¢] we didn't know what might happen. . . . We decided that America's indorsement of our solvency would be of great value, and went to America for money. Since then most of that loan has been bought back by Dutch investors. Our finance, gentlemen, is sound."