THE FAITH HEALER AND THE QUEEN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000100130121-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 3, 2000
• Sequence Number: 121
• Publication Date: June 22, 1958
• Content Type: NSPR

IT45- WS & WORLD REPOT JUhk 2 22ir~ FOIAb3b
Approv d Forelease 2000/08/24 CIA-RDPTO-00058R00010a
U. S. News & World Report
THE FAITH HEALER AND THE QUEEN
A Published Report That May Spell Trouble for Juliana
What is the story behind all the furor over
Queen Juliana of the Netherlands-one of
Europe's few remaining monarchs?
Has a religious mystic-a faith healer
who claims to talk with God-come between
the Dutch Queen and her Prince Consort?
There are rumors of a Cabinet crisis and of
possible abdication, of palace intrigue by a
"female Rasputin" who claims divine guid-
ance over the affairs of the royal family.
CPYRGHT
Q&FXRGHT
Until now it has been a carefully kept
tate secret-what has been happening
i the small, unimposing cabin in the
ack yard of a country estate in the little
utch town of Baarn-for it might shake
ne of the last remaining thrones in
urope.
Only a 10-minute walk from the cabin
tands Soestdijk Palace, where Queen
uliana of the Netherlands has
alien under the influence of a
miracle worker" who claims to re-
eive divine orders. The American
ecret service, observing the case
it the direction of its chief, Allen
)ullgs [Director of the Centrarm
elligence Agency], is faced again
vith a European enigma. An affair
hat seems to stem from a faith in
rbscure miracles is threatening the
olitical stability of one of the coun-
ries in the North Atlantic Treaty
)rganization.
Like the legendary monk, Ras-
)utin, at the Tsarist court of Rus-
ia, 61-year-old Greet Hofmans at
he Palace of Soestdijk has been
utilizing the ailment of a royal child
to gain influence over the Queen
in political and personal matters.
[The Russian monk, Grigori Ras-
putin, came to the Court of St.
Petersburg in 1907 and promised
Czarina Alexandra to heal Crown
Prince Alexis of a blood disease.
Ile mixed in state affairs and was
favored by Tsar Nicholas II despite
the objections of important officials.
It was a West German weekly magazine,
Der Spiegel, that first brought into the open
the story of the Queen and the faith healer.
The Dutch promptly confiscated copies of
the magazine.
Two days later the Netherlands Govern-
ment officially denied rumors that the Queen
and her husband were considering a divorce.
On these pages is an English translation of
the story that stirred up all Europe.
asputin was assassinated by Prince
usupov in December, 1916.1
The role of the spinster, Greet Hof-
out openly. Me a
marriage between Juliana, Princess of
Orange-Nassau, and the German Prince
vans, like that of Rasputin in Tsarist Bernhard ot Lippe- ies er e c are a ma -
Russia, has been conipletely unknown to ter orM ehPaSL. VPfiile the kvet UfAIs ba-
the. Netherlanders. The few in the Court stowing her favor on the "faith healer"
and Cabinet who know about it are di- and heading a pro-Hofmans clique at the
vidcd into opposing camps and feuding Court of Holland, her consort is heading
so furiously that even the threat of a an anti-Hofmans clique with the support
Government crisis no longer insures com- of Socialist Premier Willem Drees.
plete discretion. Ironically, it was Prince Bernhard him-
Royal couple at odds. In the royal self who brought the "miracle worker" to
household, the conflict already has broken Soestdijk Palace. He first heard of
Greet Hofmans while on a hunting
trip in 1948. A Dutch general told
him that the general's six-year-old
daughter had been cured of tuber-
culosis.
The information greatly moved
the Prince. Juliana and Bernhard
have four daughters-Beatrix, 18;
Irene, 16; Margriet, 13; and 9-year-
old Maria Christina. The latter,
called Marijke, was born with cata-
racts. As a baby, her sight deterio-
rated progressively. An operation
partially saved the sight of one eye.
In the other, Marijke is blind today
un~ and, the doctors say, forever.
It was while Marijke was still a
baby that the father first heard of
the "miracle worker" in 1948. Until
then, the life of Greet Hofmans
had been filled with poverty and
bitterness. As a 12-year-old child
she went to work in a textile mill
to help care for her sick mother.
Slowly she worked herself up and
became a sort of supervisor and
t,o