Leidsch Dagblad
- The Golden Jubilee of the Steam Oil Mill Ltd., formerly Sillevis & Rutten
- The Dutch–Belgian Treaty
- Destroyers for the Indies
On 30 October 1926 this Leiden daily marked the golden jubilee of the Sillevis & Rutten steam oil mill on the Lage Rijndijk at Leiderdorp. It traced the firm back more than a century, to an oil trade in The Hague and earlier mills at Vrijenban near Delft and at Nieuw-Lekkerland. On the disputed Dutch–Belgian treaty, the paper accepted Vandervelde's denial that he knew of a discussion. It still argued that Belgian minister Francqui's step was a warning to the Netherlands, whether or not his colleagues knew about it. A short naval item reported that the Navy Department's tender for two destroyers for service in the Netherlands Indies would go to the Feijenoord shipbuilding company.
Translation
The Golden Jubilee of the Steam Oil Mill Ltd., formerly Sillevis & Rutten
Tomorrow it will be half a century since the well-known oil mill on the Lage Rijndijk at Leiderdorp, near our municipality, was founded by the partners L. and G. Sillevis and C. Rutten. Before that, Messrs Johs. Sillevis and Sons already carried on a trade in oil in The Hague and had oil mills at Vrijenban, near Delft, and at Nieuw-Lekkerland. Counted from that time, the firm has already existed for more than a hundred years.
The Dutch–Belgian Treaty
After his denial we gladly accept that Mr Vandervelde did not know of this discussion. Even if, however, Minister Francqui raised the subject without the knowledge of his colleagues, this does nothing to diminish the significance that his action has as a warning to us.
Destroyers for the Indies
As the result of a tender held by the Department of the Navy for the construction of 2 torpedo-boat destroyers for service in the Netherlands Indies, the contract for this construction will be awarded to the Maatschappij voor Scheeps- en Werktuigbouw Feijenoord.
Context
The 1925 Dutch–Belgian treaty and its rejection
The treaty discussed by the Leidsch Dagblad is the agreement that Dutch Foreign Minister Van Karnebeek concluded with Belgium in April 1925. Its purpose was to repair relations that had been strained since the First World War. Concessions to Belgium, such as the proposed link between Antwerp and Moerdijk, provoked public protest, and Anton Mussert was one of the protest leaders. The ratification was a close call. The Tweede Kamer passed the approval bill by only 50 votes to 47. The Eerste Kamer then debated it in March 1927 and rejected it on 23 March by 33 votes to 17, which led Van Karnebeek to resign. The paper's insistence that a Belgian minister's conduct was a 'warning to us' expresses the distrust of Belgian intentions that drove this opposition. The final outcome was still months away when this page was printed.
Why Belgian bargaining with Germany looked like a warning
The excerpt reacts to reports that the Belgian minister Francqui had raised a sensitive subject in talks. The paper accepts Vandervelde's denial that he knew about it, but argues that the episode is still a warning. The surrounding report, partly garbled in the OCR, refers to Eupen. Other sources show that a deal on that border district was briefly on the table in September 1926. When Briand and Stresemann met at Thoiry, Briand consented to a German–Belgian agreement on returning Eupen-Malmedy to Germany. Soon afterwards, objections from both the German and the French governments cut back the scope of the Thoiry understandings. The paper itself does not establish exactly what Francqui discussed. Its point is that Belgium's willingness to negotiate in this way mattered for the Netherlands while the Dutch were weighing their own treaty concessions to Belgium.
The Feijenoord destroyers and their fate
The two destroyers awarded to Feijenoord match the yard's share of the Admiralen class. This class of eight destroyers was built for the Royal Netherlands Navy in the 1920s to replace the Wolf-class destroyers. Its design was derived from the experimental British destroyer Ambuscade. Feijenoord built two ships of the second group, Van Galen and Witte de With. Witte de With was laid down at the Feijenoord yard in Rotterdam on 28 May 1927 and launched on 11 September 1928. She fought in the Battle of the Java Sea on 27 February 1942 and was scuttled a few days later after Japanese air attacks. Van Galen was in the Netherlands when war came and was sent to help defend Rotterdam, where German bombers sank her in May 1940. One of the two ships ordered here thus took part in the defence of the East Indies against Japan in 1942.
Steam oil mills and linseed cake for livestock
The jubilee notice stresses that Sillevis & Rutten was a steam oil mill, and it traces the family firm back to earlier mills near Delft and at Nieuw-Lekkerland. Those claims come from the paper and from the firm's own history, and the sources here do not check them independently. The general background is better documented. In the late nineteenth century, steam engines made large-scale production of animal feed possible. Mills pressed oil from linseed for uses such as margarine and made linseed cakes for cattle from the residue, so the by-product was at least as important as the oil. Farmers also organised to produce feed themselves. In 1907 the Stichtsche Boerenbond started a cooperative oil and linseed-cake factory in Utrecht. A private mill such as the one at Leiderdorp therefore celebrated its fiftieth year in a feed market where farmers' cooperatives were growing.
Original
HET GOUDEN JUBILEUM VAN DE N.V. STOOM-OLIESLAGERIJ v.h. SILLEVIS & RUTTEN.
Morgen zal het een halve eeuw geleden zijn dat de bekende olieslagerij aan den Lage Rijndijk onder Leiderdorp en nabij onze gemeente, werd opgericht door de firmanten L. en G. Sillevis en C. Rutten. Voordien dreven de heeren Johs. Sillevis en Zonen reeds een handel in olie te ' s-Gravenhage en hadden olieslagerijen te Vrijenban, bij Delft, en te Nieuw-Lekkerland. Van dien tijd af gerekend bestaat de firma reeds meer dan honderd jaar.
HET NEDERLANDSCH-BELGISCH VERDRAG.
Na zijn démenti nemen wij gaarne aan, dat de heer Vandervelde niet van deze bespreking geweten heeft. Zelfs echter, als minister Francqui zonder medeweten van zijn collega's het onderwerp ter sprake heeft gebracht, vermindert dit niets aan de beteekenis, die zijn optreden als waarschuwing voor ons heeft.
TORPEDOJAGERS VOOR INDIE.
Als resultaat van een door het departement van Marine gehouden aanbesteding voor den bouw van 2 torpedobootjagers voor den dienst in Ned. - Indië zal aan de Maatschappij voor Scheeps - en Werktuigbouw Feijenoord de opdracht voor dezen bouw worden verstrekt.
Source: Source: Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken (leiden.courant.nu)