The very first impetus for the establishment of the NGV came from Mr Citroen's wife. In the spring of 1953, she read a short article in the newspaper about the establishment of the FIT (the International Federation of Translators). She cut it out and gave it to her husband, urging him to find out whether he could become a member of this organisation. As an organisation, you could make your voice heard. That was better than grumbling about abuses on your own.
The newspaper clipping quickly disappeared among other papers on Mr Citroen's desk. But when it resurfaced months later, he wrote a letter after all. The reply came a few months later. Another interested Dutchman had come forward and Edmond Cary of the FIT advised him to contact this man, Henri W. Methorst in Amsterdam.
When a conference was held in Scheveningen in the summer of 1955, at which both Cary and Methorst were acting as interpreters, Citroen joined them. This was the first serious step. Cary explained that membership of the FIT was not open to individual translators or interpreters, but only to associations. The translators and interpreters in the Netherlands therefore had to set up an association in order to join the FIT.