THE NETHERLANDS: Juliana & the Healer

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At Soestdijk, as word of her influence spread, the royal couple's separate secretarial staffs, government ministers and even the royal princesses took sides with one faction or the other. Greet Hofmans' influence on Juliana eventually diminished somewhat. By 1953 the healer was seeing far less of the Queen, but she still lives in a cottage close to the palace, and a difficulty between Juliana and Bernhard has remained.

Truth Must Not Out. On the eve of the Dutch national elections last week, despite Dutch attempts to stop it, the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel broke the story, with numerous embellishments. It suggested that the crisis at Soestdijk might lead to Queen Juliana's divorce or abdication. In dismay, the coalition government of Socialist Premier Willem Drees called a conclave of Dutch editors, who agreed not to run the story before the election and to soft-pedal it afterwards. Premier Drees later publicly denied that there was any truth to the talk of abdication or divorce, but by implication admitted the basic truth of the rest of the tragic tale ("Even if something is not a lie, it sometimes should not be published"). In Stockholm, attending the equestrian Olympics, Bernhard would say nothing.

As to Greet Hofmans' views on the matter: "I'm responsible to God and to no one else," she snapped at a reporter last week. "I've never said a word about the royal family, and I never will. Why don't you ask the Queen?"