Seven Years
Wiped Out
FEB 4 1953
By WADE JONES
THE HAGUE, Feb. 4—Tough,
tiny, water-soaked Holland has just
fought and lost another battle with
her ancient enemy, the Sea. And
now she faces another battle, to re
gain her financial strength.
Loss from the week-end storm
will "run into hundreds of millions,"
according to a government spokes
man.
"It puts us right back where we
were after the war in 1945" he add
ed grimly.
There's real tragedy in that last
statement, for only five days be
fore the storm struck, Holland had
announced that her recovery from
World War II had reached a point
where she would not need any
more United States economic dol
lar aid this year.
SEVEN LEAN YEARS
Those seven long, lean years
since the war had seen this little
water-bedeviled nation of 10,000,-
000 people fight its way back from
a state of near paralysis to one of
thriving productivity.
And it was done the hard way
no miracle short cuts or "have
your cake and eat it" methods.
How often can this country,
historically plagued by invasions
of the sea continue to bounce back?
The answer was to be seen in
the faces and actions. There were
grimness and a few tears but no
panic. Men toiled steadily, as if
they'd been at it for years, filling
sandbags, heaving them off trucks
and slapping them into weak points
along the dikes.
In the midst of the swift jumble
of straining men stood a boy of
seven, calmly working a small hand
pump in the street. The modest
trickle he produced emptied into
the gutter and eventually added it
self to the seas of water on all sides.
THREE TYPES
The Dutch have three types of
dikes which they call "wakers,
sleepers and dreamers." The wakers
j are the first line of defense, the
sleepers the reserve line and the
dreamers the last stronghold.
Out toward the sleepers and wak-
ers, with great gaps in them,
stretched miles of water as far as
the eye could reach.
A truck stopped and two soldiers
ran down the back side of the
dreamer and tried to remove a fam
ily from their home.
"Where do you want us to go?"
the woman sobbed. "This is our
home and we stay here."
