Louis Beel
Encyclopedia
Louis Joseph Maria Beel was a Dutch
politician of the defunct Catholic People's Party
(KVP) now merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal
(CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands
from July 3, 1946 until August 7, 1948 and again from December 22, 1958 until May 19, 1959. Because of his long service record he was considered by some as having the status of a statesman.
On November 22, 1956, he was granted the honorary title of Minister of State
.
, a town with a Bishop
's see
in the province of Limburg
, in the very south of the Netherlands. He grew up in a predominantly Roman Catholic community and went to school at the famous Bisschoppelijk College (Diocesan College) of Roermond. He graduated in 1920 and found work as clerk-volunteer at the municipality of Roermond. Two years later he became secretary to the Educational Religious Inspector of the Roermond diocese, Monsignor
Petrus van Gils. When in 1923 the Roman Catholic University was founded in Nijmegen (presently known als the Radboud University Nijmegen
), Monsignor van Gils insisted on his secretary becoming a part-time law-student in Nijmegen. In 1924 Beel began commuting between Roermond
and Nijmegen. After obtaining his bachelor's degree
in 1925 he found a new job as an administrative assistant in the government of the eastern province of Overijssel
. He moved to its capital, the town of Zwolle
, and left his place of birth Roermond. During the time he lived in Zwolle
Beel got married and his first child, a son, was born. In addition to being a provincial civil servant Beel accepted a part-time lectureship at an institute for professional training, Katholieke Leergangen, and he wrote his first articles on legal subjects.
In 1928 Beel obtained his master's degree in law at Radboud University Nijmegen
. Subsequently he applied for a better job, and managed to find one as a clerk in the municipality of Eindhoven, also in the South of The Netherlands at that time a booming city as a result of the establishment of the Philips
group. With his wife, his son and his mother-in-law he moved to Eindhoven in 1929 and lived there for more than fifteen years. Three daughters were born there. Beel's professional career progressed rapidly and in less than one year he became a principal clerk. As he had in Zwolle
, Beel proved to be an industrious man. He continued his part-time lecturing at the Katholieke Leergangen, he published regularly in the legal press and in 1935 he obtained his doctorate in law at the Radboud University Nijmegen
.
in 1942, Beel was Director of Social Affairs and Deputy Town Clerk. Beel resigned because he opposed the German Occupation of The Netherlands. To avoid being taken prisoner by the German occupational forces he frequently had to go in hiding. Eindhoven was liberated on September 18, 1944 at the time of the World War II military offensive known as Operation Market Garden
. Dutch resistance
fighters, massively manifesting themselves immediately after the Germans had gone, saw Beel as one of them. He became the spokesman of a group of prominent citizens in Eindhoven, who had resisted the Germans
during the war. The group was not in favour of a continuation of the pre-war political party-lines, with the ever-dominant Anti Revolutionary Party
. In this vein they sent an Address, drafted by Beel, to Queen Wilhelmina
, who still resided in London. Beel was urged to accept the function of adviser to the Military Administration (Militair Gezag), the temporary government in the liberated southern part of The Netherlands under Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
. In this capacity Beel was invited by the Dutch government in exile
to travel to London and to advise on dealing with the war victims. He arrived in London on January 1, 1945. On 10 January he visited at her request Queen Wilhelmina
in her English mansion Mortimer. This visit gave a decisive turn to Beel's life.
intuitively saw in Beel, a Roman Catholic from the South who ostentatiously had rejected Nazism, the prototype of the patriot and of the sort of "renewed" person she was looking for to replace the members of her war-cabinet, of whom she no longer wholeheartedly approved. Beel was promptly appointed Minister of the Interior in the Cabinet Gerbrandy III. This cabinet resigned immediately after the end of the war, in May 1945, to free the path for a new one to be formed by two a liberal
, Wim Schermerhorn, and social democrat
, Willem Drees
. They invited Beel to remain as Minister of the Interior in their cabinet (the Cabinet Schermerhorn/Drees
). According to his own words, Beel reluctantly agreed. He moved with his family from Eindhoven in the South to Wassenaar
in the West, a villadom close to The Hague
, the government's residence.
Post-war parliamentary elections could finally be held in May 1946. In the election campaign Beel voiced the political resistance from the religious and liberal parties against the economic planning and socialism favoured by Prime Minister Schermerhorn and his political supporters. Unlike the British
elections of the previous year where the Labour Party gained a decisive victory, in the Netherlands the 'Socialist breakthrough' which had been expected did not materialise in these first post-war elections. The Catholic People's Party
) was the big winner, though no party had an overall majority. Queen Wilhelmina
requested Beel to form a new cabinet. He became Prime Minister of a 'red-Roman coalition', which he called the 'New Truce', since it was the first cabinet in Dutch history of socialists and Roman Catholics. This Beel-cabinet set the course for the political and economic development of the post war Netherlands.
In 1948 parliamentary elections were again required for a constitutional renewal, which was thought necessary to solve the problems emerging in the Dutch East Indies
, where the nationalists Sukarno
and Hatta
had proclaimed the independence of their country immediately after the Japanese surrender. The KVP won again and Beel was asked to form a new cabinet. He might again have become Prime Minister, but he failed to form the broad based cabinet of socialists, Catholic parties and liberals, which he deemed necessary to secure the corrections in the Constitution. Josef van Schaik
, a fellow KVP politician, took over and succeeded in forming a broad based cabinet by offering the socialist Willem Drees
the function of Prime Minister, Josef van Schaik
himself being satisfied with the function of Deputy Prime Minister. Drees appointed Beel High Commissioner of the Crown in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia
), as a successor to Lieutenant Governor General Hubertus van Mook, a man of proven managerial abilities, who had to resign unwillingly.
The Dutch government in The Hague
made several attempts to reach an agreement with the Republic of Indonesia. Beel, stationed in Batavia (now named Jakarta
), was not in favour of such an agreement because of his suspicions - later proven to be right - that the new Republic did not want the establishment of a Federal State of Indonesia, as was planned in the Dutch decolonisation policy. Under the auspices of the Security Council of the United Nations an agreement was achieved in May 1949 to hold a Round Table Conference in The Hague
in order to prepare the transfer of sovereignty. Beel made efforts to thwart the agreement. However he was unsuccessful and he resigned from his Office of High Commissioner of the Crown.
Beel returned to his home at the end of May 1949 and a few months later he accepted a professorate in administrative law at his Alma Mater
in Nijmegen, one of his early ambitions.
On 7 November 1951, Johannes Henricus van Maarseveen
, Minister of the Interior, suddenly died. Prime Minister Drees appealed to Beel to return to office. Again reluctantly, Beel accepted Prime Minister Drees' offer. He also held the function of Minister of the Interior in the next Drees-cabinet after the elections of 1952. In July 1956 Beel asked that he be allowed to resign from government to become, as a private citizen, chairman of a committee of three wise men that was requested by Queen Juliana
and the Consort Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld
to help solve problems pertaining to the Royal Family. The problems were related to faith healer Greet Hofmans
, whom the Queen had invited to the royal palace in order to cure her youngest daughter, who had been born half blind in 1947. The renowned German magazine Der Spiegel
had accused Mrs. Hofmans of playing a 'Rasputin' role in the Royal Family. Within a month the committee had fulfilled its task by writing a secret report, which banished the sensitive affair from publicity. Three months later Beel was appointed Minister of State
, a prestigious title of honour.
In 1958 after an interlude of eighteen months without a public office, Beel was appointed member of the Council of State
. Soon afterwards however he was called upon to form his second cabinet - a rump cabinet
from December 1958 until May 1959, that had to dissolve parliament and call new elections. After these elections Beel assisted the Roman Catholic politician Jan de Quay
in forming a Catholic-liberal cabinet, ending for the time being the 'red-Roman coalition', which had been Beel's own initiative in 1946. The Cabinet de Quay
appointed Beel as Vice President of the Dutch Council of State, the most prestigious office in the Dutch administration, the head of state being the honorary President of the Dutch Council of State
Whereas other political leaders, who had come forward after the war, one by one left the political scene and the 'participation-democracy' of the New Left movement created a new type of politician, Beel retained in the authority of the Council of State a great influence on government. He owed his role to the way he performed his high office as well to his position of confidence with the Royal Family. In various affairs the royals faced, Beel's taciturn way of acting on behalf of the monarchy and his prudent pulling the strings behind the scene as Vice President of the Dutch Council of State gave him the nickname 'The Sphinx
'. The power he derived from both positions christened him "Viceroy of Holland". The authority of Beel and his controlling influence in political circles became manifest when new cabinets had to be formed or cabinet crises had to be warded off. Through the thirteen years of his vice-presidency Beel had a steering hand in nearly every cabinet-formation - including the dramatic formation of the cabinet of the social democrat
Joop den Uyl
in 1973.
. Some years before his wife had died. He retired with his mentally handicapped eldest daughter and her attendant to the quiet village of Doorn
. On 11 February 1977 Beel died in the University Hospital of Utrecht.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
politician of the defunct Catholic People's Party
Catholic People's Party
The Catholic People's Party was a Catholic Christian democratic Dutch political party. During its entire existence, the party was in government. The party is one of the precursors of the Christian Democratic Appeal.- 1945-1965 :The KVP was founded on 22 December, 1945...
(KVP) now merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal
Christian Democratic Appeal
The Christian Democratic Appeal is a centre-right Dutch Christian democratic political party. It suffered severe losses in the 2010 elections and fell from the first to the fourth place...
(CDA). He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands
Prime Minister of the Netherlands
The Prime Minister of the Netherlands is the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Netherlands. He is the de facto head of government of the Netherlands and coordinates the policy of the government...
from July 3, 1946 until August 7, 1948 and again from December 22, 1958 until May 19, 1959. Because of his long service record he was considered by some as having the status of a statesman.
On November 22, 1956, he was granted the honorary title of Minister of State
Minister of State (Netherlands)
The Minister of State is an honorary title in the Netherlands. The title is formally granted together with the style Excellency, by the Monarch, but on the initiative of the cabinet of the Netherlands. It is given on a personal basis, for life rather than for a specified period. The title is...
.
Early life
Louis Joseph Maria Beel was born on April 12, 1902 in RoermondRoermond
Roermond is a city, a municipality, and a diocese in the southeastern part of the Netherlands.The city of Roermond is a historically important town, on the lower Roer at the east bank of the Meuse river. It received city rights in 1231...
, a town with a Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
's see
Episcopal See
An episcopal see is, in the original sense, the official seat of a bishop. This seat, which is also referred to as the bishop's cathedra, is placed in the bishop's principal church, which is therefore called the bishop's cathedral...
in the province of Limburg
Limburg (Netherlands)
Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. It is located in the southeastern part of the country and bordered by the province of Gelderland to the north, Germany to the east, Belgium to the south and part of the west, andthe Dutch province of North Brabant partly to...
, in the very south of the Netherlands. He grew up in a predominantly Roman Catholic community and went to school at the famous Bisschoppelijk College (Diocesan College) of Roermond. He graduated in 1920 and found work as clerk-volunteer at the municipality of Roermond. Two years later he became secretary to the Educational Religious Inspector of the Roermond diocese, Monsignor
Monsignor
Monsignor, pl. monsignori, is the form of address for those members of the clergy of the Catholic Church holding certain ecclesiastical honorific titles. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord"...
Petrus van Gils. When in 1923 the Roman Catholic University was founded in Nijmegen (presently known als the Radboud University Nijmegen
Radboud University Nijmegen
Radboud University Nijmegen is a public university with a strong focus on research in Nijmegen, the Netherlands...
), Monsignor van Gils insisted on his secretary becoming a part-time law-student in Nijmegen. In 1924 Beel began commuting between Roermond
Roermond
Roermond is a city, a municipality, and a diocese in the southeastern part of the Netherlands.The city of Roermond is a historically important town, on the lower Roer at the east bank of the Meuse river. It received city rights in 1231...
and Nijmegen. After obtaining his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1925 he found a new job as an administrative assistant in the government of the eastern province of Overijssel
Overijssel
Overijssel is a province of the Netherlands in the central eastern part of the country. The region has a NUTS classification of NL21. The province's name means "Lands across river IJssel". The capital city of Overijssel is Zwolle and the largest city is Enschede...
. He moved to its capital, the town of Zwolle
Zwolle
Zwolle is a municipality and the capital city of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands, 120 kilometers northeast of Amsterdam. Zwolle has about 120,000 citizens.-History:...
, and left his place of birth Roermond. During the time he lived in Zwolle
Zwolle
Zwolle is a municipality and the capital city of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands, 120 kilometers northeast of Amsterdam. Zwolle has about 120,000 citizens.-History:...
Beel got married and his first child, a son, was born. In addition to being a provincial civil servant Beel accepted a part-time lectureship at an institute for professional training, Katholieke Leergangen, and he wrote his first articles on legal subjects.
In 1928 Beel obtained his master's degree in law at Radboud University Nijmegen
Radboud University Nijmegen
Radboud University Nijmegen is a public university with a strong focus on research in Nijmegen, the Netherlands...
. Subsequently he applied for a better job, and managed to find one as a clerk in the municipality of Eindhoven, also in the South of The Netherlands at that time a booming city as a result of the establishment of the Philips
Philips
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. , more commonly known as Philips, is a multinational Dutch electronics company....
group. With his wife, his son and his mother-in-law he moved to Eindhoven in 1929 and lived there for more than fifteen years. Three daughters were born there. Beel's professional career progressed rapidly and in less than one year he became a principal clerk. As he had in Zwolle
Zwolle
Zwolle is a municipality and the capital city of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands, 120 kilometers northeast of Amsterdam. Zwolle has about 120,000 citizens.-History:...
, Beel proved to be an industrious man. He continued his part-time lecturing at the Katholieke Leergangen, he published regularly in the legal press and in 1935 he obtained his doctorate in law at the Radboud University Nijmegen
Radboud University Nijmegen
Radboud University Nijmegen is a public university with a strong focus on research in Nijmegen, the Netherlands...
.
World War II
At the time of his resignation as a municipal Civil servantCivil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
in 1942, Beel was Director of Social Affairs and Deputy Town Clerk. Beel resigned because he opposed the German Occupation of The Netherlands. To avoid being taken prisoner by the German occupational forces he frequently had to go in hiding. Eindhoven was liberated on September 18, 1944 at the time of the World War II military offensive known as Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time....
. Dutch resistance
Dutch resistance
Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized by its prominent non-violence, summitting in over 300,000 people in hiding in the autumn of 1944, tended to by some 60,000 to 200,000 illegal landlords and caretakers and tolerated knowingly...
fighters, massively manifesting themselves immediately after the Germans had gone, saw Beel as one of them. He became the spokesman of a group of prominent citizens in Eindhoven, who had resisted the Germans
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
during the war. The group was not in favour of a continuation of the pre-war political party-lines, with the ever-dominant Anti Revolutionary Party
Anti Revolutionary Party
The Anti Revolutionary Party was a Dutch Protestant Christian democratic political party. The ARP is one of the predecessors of the Christian Democratic Appeal. After 1917 the party never received more than twenty percent of the vote.-History before 1879:The anti-revolutionary parliamentary caucus...
. In this vein they sent an Address, drafted by Beel, to Queen Wilhelmina
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
Wilhelmina was Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1890 to 1948. She ruled the Netherlands for fifty-eight years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw World War I and World War II, the economic crisis of 1933, and the decline of the Netherlands as a major colonial...
, who still resided in London. Beel was urged to accept the function of adviser to the Military Administration (Militair Gezag), the temporary government in the liberated southern part of The Netherlands under Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force , was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was in command of SHAEF throughout its existence...
. In this capacity Beel was invited by the Dutch government in exile
Dutch government in exile
The Dutch government in exile was the government of the Netherlands, headed by Queen Wilhelmina, that evacuated to London after the German invasion of the country at the outset of World War II....
to travel to London and to advise on dealing with the war victims. He arrived in London on January 1, 1945. On 10 January he visited at her request Queen Wilhelmina
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
Wilhelmina was Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1890 to 1948. She ruled the Netherlands for fifty-eight years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw World War I and World War II, the economic crisis of 1933, and the decline of the Netherlands as a major colonial...
in her English mansion Mortimer. This visit gave a decisive turn to Beel's life.
Politics
The QueenQueen regnant
A queen regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right, in contrast to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reigning king. An empress regnant is a female monarch who reigns in her own right over an empire....
intuitively saw in Beel, a Roman Catholic from the South who ostentatiously had rejected Nazism, the prototype of the patriot and of the sort of "renewed" person she was looking for to replace the members of her war-cabinet, of whom she no longer wholeheartedly approved. Beel was promptly appointed Minister of the Interior in the Cabinet Gerbrandy III. This cabinet resigned immediately after the end of the war, in May 1945, to free the path for a new one to be formed by two a liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, Wim Schermerhorn, and social democrat
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
, Willem Drees
Willem Drees
Willem Drees was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party . He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from August 7, 1948 until December 22, 1958....
. They invited Beel to remain as Minister of the Interior in their cabinet (the Cabinet Schermerhorn/Drees
Netherlands cabinet Schermerhorn/Drees
The Schermerhorn-Drees cabinet was in office in the Netherlands from 24 June 1945 until 3 July 1946.- Introduction :The Schermerhorn-Drees cabinet, the first Dutch cabinet after World War II, was appointed by Queen Wilhelmina just a month after the Netherlands were liberated by the Allied forces...
). According to his own words, Beel reluctantly agreed. He moved with his family from Eindhoven in the South to Wassenaar
Wassenaar
Wassenaar is a town in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. A fairly affluent suburb of The Hague, Wassenaar lies 10 km north of that city on the N44 highway near the North Sea coast. It is part of the Haaglanden region...
in the West, a villadom close to The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, the government's residence.
Post-war parliamentary elections could finally be held in May 1946. In the election campaign Beel voiced the political resistance from the religious and liberal parties against the economic planning and socialism favoured by Prime Minister Schermerhorn and his political supporters. Unlike the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
elections of the previous year where the Labour Party gained a decisive victory, in the Netherlands the 'Socialist breakthrough' which had been expected did not materialise in these first post-war elections. The Catholic People's Party
Catholic People's Party
The Catholic People's Party was a Catholic Christian democratic Dutch political party. During its entire existence, the party was in government. The party is one of the precursors of the Christian Democratic Appeal.- 1945-1965 :The KVP was founded on 22 December, 1945...
) was the big winner, though no party had an overall majority. Queen Wilhelmina
Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
Wilhelmina was Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1890 to 1948. She ruled the Netherlands for fifty-eight years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw World War I and World War II, the economic crisis of 1933, and the decline of the Netherlands as a major colonial...
requested Beel to form a new cabinet. He became Prime Minister of a 'red-Roman coalition', which he called the 'New Truce', since it was the first cabinet in Dutch history of socialists and Roman Catholics. This Beel-cabinet set the course for the political and economic development of the post war Netherlands.
In 1948 parliamentary elections were again required for a constitutional renewal, which was thought necessary to solve the problems emerging in the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
, where the nationalists Sukarno
Sukarno
Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo was the first President of Indonesia.Sukarno was the leader of his country's struggle for independence from the Netherlands and was Indonesia's first President from 1945 to 1967...
and Hatta
Hatta
Hatta may refer to:* Hatta, Gaza, an Arab village in Palestine depopulated in 1948* Hatta, Madhya Pradesh, a village in Damoh District, Madhya Pradesh, India* the Hatta number, a dimensionless parameter in chemical reaction engineering...
had proclaimed the independence of their country immediately after the Japanese surrender. The KVP won again and Beel was asked to form a new cabinet. He might again have become Prime Minister, but he failed to form the broad based cabinet of socialists, Catholic parties and liberals, which he deemed necessary to secure the corrections in the Constitution. Josef van Schaik
Josef van Schaik
Josephus Robertus Hendricus van Schaik was a Dutch politician.-References:...
, a fellow KVP politician, took over and succeeded in forming a broad based cabinet by offering the socialist Willem Drees
Willem Drees
Willem Drees was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party . He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from August 7, 1948 until December 22, 1958....
the function of Prime Minister, Josef van Schaik
Josef van Schaik
Josephus Robertus Hendricus van Schaik was a Dutch politician.-References:...
himself being satisfied with the function of Deputy Prime Minister. Drees appointed Beel High Commissioner of the Crown in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
), as a successor to Lieutenant Governor General Hubertus van Mook, a man of proven managerial abilities, who had to resign unwillingly.
The Dutch government in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
made several attempts to reach an agreement with the Republic of Indonesia. Beel, stationed in Batavia (now named Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
), was not in favour of such an agreement because of his suspicions - later proven to be right - that the new Republic did not want the establishment of a Federal State of Indonesia, as was planned in the Dutch decolonisation policy. Under the auspices of the Security Council of the United Nations an agreement was achieved in May 1949 to hold a Round Table Conference in The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
in order to prepare the transfer of sovereignty. Beel made efforts to thwart the agreement. However he was unsuccessful and he resigned from his Office of High Commissioner of the Crown.
Beel returned to his home at the end of May 1949 and a few months later he accepted a professorate in administrative law at his Alma Mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
in Nijmegen, one of his early ambitions.
On 7 November 1951, Johannes Henricus van Maarseveen
Johannes Henricus van Maarseveen
Johannes Henricus van Maarseveen was a Dutch politician.-References:* at the Institute of Netherlands History ....
, Minister of the Interior, suddenly died. Prime Minister Drees appealed to Beel to return to office. Again reluctantly, Beel accepted Prime Minister Drees' offer. He also held the function of Minister of the Interior in the next Drees-cabinet after the elections of 1952. In July 1956 Beel asked that he be allowed to resign from government to become, as a private citizen, chairman of a committee of three wise men that was requested by Queen Juliana
Juliana of the Netherlands
Juliana was the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands between 1948 and 1980. She was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry...
and the Consort Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld , later Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, was prince consort of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and father of six children, including the current monarch Queen Beatrix....
to help solve problems pertaining to the Royal Family. The problems were related to faith healer Greet Hofmans
Greet Hofmans
Greet Hofmans was a faith healer and hand layer. For nine years she was a friend and advisor of Queen Juliana, often residing at Palace Soestdijk...
, whom the Queen had invited to the royal palace in order to cure her youngest daughter, who had been born half blind in 1947. The renowned German magazine Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
had accused Mrs. Hofmans of playing a 'Rasputin' role in the Royal Family. Within a month the committee had fulfilled its task by writing a secret report, which banished the sensitive affair from publicity. Three months later Beel was appointed Minister of State
Minister of State
Minister of State is a title borne by politicians or officials in certain countries governed under a parliamentary system. In some countries a "minister of state" is a junior minister, who is assigned to assist a specific cabinet minister...
, a prestigious title of honour.
In 1958 after an interlude of eighteen months without a public office, Beel was appointed member of the Council of State
Dutch Council of State
In the Netherlands, the Council of State is a constitutionally established advisory body to the government which consists of members of the royal family and Crown-appointed members generally having political, commercial, diplomatic, or military experience...
. Soon afterwards however he was called upon to form his second cabinet - a rump cabinet
Rump cabinet
A rump cabinet is a cabinet from which one or more coalition partners have withdrawn and which has minority support in parliament.-Netherlands:...
from December 1958 until May 1959, that had to dissolve parliament and call new elections. After these elections Beel assisted the Roman Catholic politician Jan de Quay
Jan de Quay
Jan Eduard de Quay was a Dutch politician of the defunct Catholic People's Party now merged into the Christian Democratic Appeal . He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from May 19, 1959 until July 24, 1963....
in forming a Catholic-liberal cabinet, ending for the time being the 'red-Roman coalition', which had been Beel's own initiative in 1946. The Cabinet de Quay
Netherlands cabinet de Quay
De Quay was the name given to a Dutch cabinet with ministers from KVP, VVD, ARP and CHU.Cabinet formation was again difficult due to the growing friction between PvdA and KVP...
appointed Beel as Vice President of the Dutch Council of State, the most prestigious office in the Dutch administration, the head of state being the honorary President of the Dutch Council of State
Whereas other political leaders, who had come forward after the war, one by one left the political scene and the 'participation-democracy' of the New Left movement created a new type of politician, Beel retained in the authority of the Council of State a great influence on government. He owed his role to the way he performed his high office as well to his position of confidence with the Royal Family. In various affairs the royals faced, Beel's taciturn way of acting on behalf of the monarchy and his prudent pulling the strings behind the scene as Vice President of the Dutch Council of State gave him the nickname 'The Sphinx
Sphinx
A sphinx is a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head or a cat head.The sphinx, in Greek tradition, has the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face of a woman. She is mythicised as treacherous and merciless...
'. The power he derived from both positions christened him "Viceroy of Holland". The authority of Beel and his controlling influence in political circles became manifest when new cabinets had to be formed or cabinet crises had to be warded off. Through the thirteen years of his vice-presidency Beel had a steering hand in nearly every cabinet-formation - including the dramatic formation of the cabinet of the social democrat
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
Joop den Uyl
Joop den Uyl
Johannes Marten den Uijl, known as Joop den Uyl was a Dutch politician of the Labour Party . He served as Prime Minister of the Netherlands from May 11, 1973 until December 19, 1977....
in 1973.
Later life
As from 1 July 1972, at the age of seventy, Beel resigned (prematurely) from his office of Vice President of the Dutch Council of StateDutch Council of State
In the Netherlands, the Council of State is a constitutionally established advisory body to the government which consists of members of the royal family and Crown-appointed members generally having political, commercial, diplomatic, or military experience...
. Some years before his wife had died. He retired with his mentally handicapped eldest daughter and her attendant to the quiet village of Doorn
Doorn
Doorn is a town in the municipality of Utrechtse Heuvelrug in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. On 1 January 2008 the town had 10,052 inhabitants.-History:...
. On 11 February 1977 Beel died in the University Hospital of Utrecht.