THE NETHERLANDS: The President

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Passport to Disillusion. For one year, one month and 13 days, the President Robert roamed the seas, putting in at port after port to enable Theodorus to transact mysterious international business ashore. None of the ports saw fit to recognize the C.C.S.D. passports or currency, so Theodorus' fellow passengers were forced to stay on board. Some were restive and disgruntled because the President had put silver piping on their uniforms while only a favored few had gold, but as long as the provisions held out, they were happy enough. In time, however, liquor and money were replaced by boredom and disillusionment. When at last the yacht reached Southampton, the passengers, thoroughly fed up and no longer so fearful of war, debarked and found their own way back to Holland. Last August, when President Robert himself came limping home, he was promptly tossed in a Maastricht jail, accused of swindling.

Last week an indignant prosecutor demanded that the ex-President be given four years to think over the world's problems in private. In drab civvies in the dingy Maastricht dock, the President admitted a little disappointment. "I was persuaded that I could help," he said, "but alas, everything went wrong."

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