A Little Bit for Holland

In Java jungles Dutch guerrillas waited last week for the news. In London Queen Wilhelmina and ministers of The Netherlands Government in Exile fidgeted. In Occupied Holland people kept watch in doorways while inside their homes forbidden radio sets were tuned to London. In "a little bit of Holland" in far-off Canada, The Netherlands' Crown Princess Juliana would give birth to her third child.

Extraterritorial Gladness. Sensible, blue-eyed, democratic Princess Juliana escaped from Holland in 1940 in a British destroyer and has been living quietly in Ottawa with Princesses Beatrix, who will be 5 next week, and Irene, 3. Her speed-loving, 31-year-old, German-born husband Prince Bernhard, an air commodore in the R.A.F., visited her briefly last spring. He flew back again last week. Said he: "I'll be glad if it's a boy, but I'll be very happy if it's a girl."

If Juliana's child is a boy he will be the first Prince born to the House of Orange since 1843 and will be in line to succeed Queen Wilhelmina and Princess Juliana as The Netherlands' first King since 1890.* Ordinarily, if born on Canadian soil, the child would be a British subject. To meet this problem the Canadian Government decreed that Juliana's ward in the Ottawa Civic Hospital is neutral territory for the duration of her confinement.

Early this week in a growing blizzard, Princess Juliana was driven from her suburban home to the hospital. At her side was Prince Bernhard. Awaiting her was her attending physician, Dr. John F. Puddicombe.

*Wilhelmina succeeded William III, whose death in 1890 was preceded by that of his sons, William (1841-79) and Alexander (1843-84).

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