The most representative meeting of the Christian Church since the Reformation opened at Amsterdam this week at the first Assembly of the World Council of Churches.

The most representative meeting of the Christian Church since the Reformation opened at Amsterdam this week. From 44 countries (six of them behind the iron curtain) and 150 denominations, 450 delegates gathered for the first Assembly of the World Council of Churches. Every major branch of the Christian Church was…

This week, at 68, after half a century of rule, Wilhelmina leaves the throne in favor of her sturdy daughter, 39-year-old Juliana.

Just 50 years ago, while cannon boomed and church bells rang, an 18-year-old girl with a sweet and melancholy face walked across the ancient square to Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk.* A purple mantle was on her shoulders, a diadem in her hair. She was Wilhelmina, Princess of Orange, about to become… View large cover

The Dutch celebrate a golden jubilee and say farewell to Queen Wilhelmina.

“First there was the burgemeesters’ convention,” groaned a fat mayor, “then the Queen’s birthday; on Saturday the abdication and then the inauguration. I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to get out of my morning coat.”

It was an amiable protest, for, like nearly every other Hollander, the mayor…

A manager of Time returned from W. Europe: “The Netherlands is certainly on its way back, a token of Dutch enterprise is the really remarkable television set I saw at Philips of Eindhoven.”

William S. Honneus, advertising manager of TIME International, returned recently from an extensive business trip to Western Europe with a dossier full of firsthand observations of the European scene. The following excerpts from his personal account may serve to add another viewpoint to the excellent reports of the trained correspondents…

To undermine Marshall Plan recovery in Europe, International Communism tries to tear Southeast Asia to pieces.

From Madiun to Syriam, from Malacca to Mandalay, the banging and chattering of hand grenades, rifles and automatic weapons punctuated day & night last week. International Communism was trying to tear Southeast Asia to pieces.

The long-range Communist plan, laid down in 1920, is to create Communist governments in all…

Booksellers all over the world are preparing to meet the demand for the book ‘Imitation of Christ’ from Thomas à Kempis, who lived most of his life in the Netherlands.

Thomas Haemerken came from Kempen near Düsseldorf. He was a shy, quiet little German monk with fresh coloring and piercing brown eyes. He was gentle with everyone, especially the poor. When the psalms were chanted he often stretched on tiptoe toward heaven with his face turned upward. He seldom had…

If the fall of China meant a Communist Far East (as European statesmen assumed that it ultimately would) then Marshall Plan dollars would not be able to help Europe much.

“You never hear the one that hits you,” the soldiers say. This observation, both comforting and terrifying, applies also to the great nations and civilizations now on history’s casualty lists. When disaster comes they are looking the other way, or else they are certain that the disaster does not matter…

Last week, for the third time since World War II ended, there was war in Indonesia between The Netherlands troops and native nationalists.

Last week, for the third time since World War II ended, there was war in Indonesia between The Netherlands troops and native nationalists. The Dutch started it. As they had before, they called it “police action”—a necessary step which, they said, they had been “regretfully obliged” to take…

The NL. won a quick, clean-cut victory in Asia. The Western powers responded confused. Independence was failing in more places and Indonesia could also follow that pattern.

About the year 1560, the people living near Jogjakarta in Java found a strange creature on the beach. It looked like a man, except that it was white. They chained it to a big square stone outside of town where all could watch and laugh at its antics. They called…

The Indonesian case before the U.N. Security Council simmered down. The Dutch told the U.N. council that they would cease firing in Indonesia only in their own good time.

The Indonesian case before the U.N. Security Council simmered down. A Dutch representative described the American attitude: “At first, the U.S. reacted like a New England parent surprised by a young man trifling with his daughter’s honor. Now the State Department’s attitude has changed. It became: ‘What are we…

Every citizen of Borculo was working side by side raising 2,200 guilders for the people of Warren, Ark. that was struck low by a tornado, which happened in Borculo in 1925 as well.

Nobody in the little (pop. 6,000) Netherlands town of Borculo knows anyone in Warren, Ark. personally. Nevertheless, last month the farmers, laborers, and shopkeepers of Borculo felt a sudden close kinship with the citizens of Warren. Fat, jolly Burgomaster Paul Drost had just told them what he had heard from…

At the World Council of Churches in Geneva, which was launced in Amsterdam last august, Dr. Visser ‘t Hooft told that not all of the press comment had been favorable about Amsterdam.

In the 18th Century Chateau de Bossey, which overlooks Lake Geneva, the Executive Committee of the World Council of Churches met last week to take stock of the world organization which was launched at Amsterdam last August. The committee also found time to denounce “the threats to man’s rights and…

The tidy Dutch were checking over the books of Amsterdam’s famed Concertgebouw Orchestra. But it was not in order: conductor and collaborator Mengelberg, was still down for fl.10,00.

The tidy Dutch were checking over the books of Amsterdam’s famed Concertgebouw Orchestra. If everything was in order, Conductor Eduard van Beinum’s musicians would get their annual subsidy as usual. But this time everything was distinctly not in order: Van Beinum’s predecessor, the great Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg, was still…

Peace seemed finally in sight in the long-drawn war between the Dutch and the Indonesian Nationalists. In Batavia, the U.N. Commission for Indonesia announced a cease-fire agreement.

Last week, peace seemed finally in sight in the long-drawn war between the Dutch and the Indonesian Nationalists. In Batavia, the U.N. Commission for Indonesia announced a cease-fire agreement. Worn down by Nationalist guerrilla fighting and worried by Communist advances in Asia, the Dutch had finally given in to the…

The famous wonderkapper (miracle barber) in the village of Een attracts a lot of people to his town since he grows hair on bald heads.

The village of Een (pop. 900) used to be just another quiet hamlet in the northern Netherlands. By last week Een had become a bustling mecca for 1,500 once desperate, now hopeful people. Bicycles were stacked up against a lilac tree in the village; cars from every Dutch province thronged…