WesWorld

July:

5th: The Prime minister van der Berg returned today from his trip to Belgium and Luxemburg. On arrival, he announced the signing of a trade and economic co-operation treaty between Netherlands and those two nations, shortly confirmed by the Belgium and Luxemburg own announcements.

"With better international trade comes better mutual understanding. Our nation is a relatively small one, so are Belgium and Luxemburg. If we want to be between the highest economic powers of the world we must help each other, putting down as many economic barriers as we can.

Today we proudly announce that the economic limits of our three nations will be no more since 1-January-1924. That means free trade between us, fixed exchange between our currencies, and means no frontier taxes for our products. It also means more and better chances for fruitful investing for dutch firms in Belgium and Luxemburg, and of course, for their firms in our country."


Answering some questions about the political significance of this treaty, van der Berg assured that:

"This is no step towards political unification. Each of the signatory nations is sovereign and will keep this way in the future. This is just a step towards lifting economic barriers between nations which should be very close anyway.".


Finally when asked if with this agreement came any kind of mutual-defence pact, van der Berg replied that there are none so far ,but admitted that there were talks open in that sense but that there was "Nothing decided at this moment".







September:


7th: The two newest battleships of the dutch fleet, KM De Ruyter and KM Tromp , have entered full service into the Dutch Royal Marine today, a fleet release said. After being in trials for months, and having been found fully satisfying in their performance, both ships entered the Fleet Navy Yard at Den Helder, where they were put under the banner of the 5th Battle Squadron of the Dutch Royal Marine. In a brief ceremony held afterwards the banner of the Flagship of the fleet was transferred from the KM Ijselijk , the previous flagship, to the KM De Ruyter, ship that will take that role from now onwards.


The De Ruyter and the Tromp with 340mm guns, heavy and well placed armor and very good speed and range, are the pride of the Dutch Fleet, and are expected to form the core of the battlefleet for many years to come. As Rear-Admiral de Jong, commander of the 5th Battle Squadron, said

"this ships are the material proof of the dutch pride and will, for they are powerful assets to ensure our nation's security at the same time that they give us the political significance to be between the highest ranking powers among the world".


At the same time the Light Cruisers Surinam and Celebes , escorted by the 1st Destroyer Flotilla, are still on trials while the Ambon and Papua, of a similar class, are nearing completion.




November

1st to 17th:

In a frenzy of celebrations and official ceremonies, the four newest Heavy Cruisers of the Friedsland class, the first class of such ships in the Dutch Royal Marine, have been launched in the last three weeks.


The KM Friesland was launched the 1st at Amsterdam, while KM Drente met the sea the 5th of this month at The Hague, followed by KM Fleroland the 10th at Vlissingen and finally KM Gelderland followed suit at Oost-Vlieland the 17th of this month.


The F-Cruiser project was an ambitious building program started this January, intended to provide the Dutch fleet with eight powerful ships for the third quarter of 1924, four of the named Friedsland class and four more of the lighter Wadden Eilanden class. According to official sources the plan has proved to be a bit too ambitious, so while the heavy cruisers will be completed on time, the light ones will probably see their completion delayed for about 6 months.

The shortage of materials wasn't expected by the Navy Building Bureau ,which was confident on using materials coming from the scrapping works on the two PreDreadnoughts of the Utretch class. However unforeseen handicaps meant that most of the materials of the elderly battleships had to be discarded, which has seriously delayed the F-Cruiser project.

This delays are nothing new in the Dutch navy, renowned in the past years for starting overambitious projects only to abandon them while only half-completed. However it seems that in this case the project completion will only be delayed, and that the eight ships ordered will enter service for 1925, at the latest.





25th:

The Navy Armaments Bureau has announced today the final destiny of the eight 320/40 guns of the Utretch class predreadnoughts. Four of them will be placed covering the entrance of the Surabaia port, while two will be placed eachin front of Medan and Balikpapan sounds.

Works are expected to be finished for Spring of 1925.




December


14th:

Light Cruisers Surinam and Celebes finished their trials cruise. They returned port today where they are to form the 7th Cruiser Squadron.

At the 7th CS two more ships are expected. The light cruisers Ambon and Papua , recently completed, have departed for their own trial cruises. Once they are fully ready, they will join their sister ships and, according to Navy sources, will set on sail to their proposed base at Balikpapan, in the Eastern Indies.




21st:

The 3rd Battle Squadron, formed by the powerful battlecruisers KM Zeven Provincien and KM De Hollandia parted today from Surabaia, commanded by the CinC of the Dutch Pacific Fleet, Vice-Admiral Hans Pienaar.

Both battlecruisers are expected to do a rendez-vous with the 5th Destroyer Squadron (currently based at Phuket Island, the Dutch base loaned on the Danish Siam), and then proceed towards India to attend the lay-down ceremony of the newest Indian battleship, Akbar .

Said ceremony is scheduled to be held the 1st of January, 1924, and is expected that foreing representants from almost every ranking power in the world will attend.