Between the devil and the deep blue sea - University of Canterbury

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emboldened by German guarantees of support, issued an ultimatum to Serbia demanding
retribution for the murders and warranties against future terrorist activities. If the Serbs did
not accept these tenns, Austria-Hungary would declare war. Serbia was given 48 hours to
respond.
The ultimatum stined the continent into a frenzy. Even before Serbia replied to
Austria-Hungary, an anonymous telegram was sent from the Dutch-Gennan Telegraph
Company (Deutsch Niederlandisch Telegrafengesellschqft) in the German city of Kaln
(Cologne), addressed to a family home in The Hague. 3 Late in the evening of25 July 1914,
a messenger arrived in the sea-town of Scheveningen. He delivered the telegram to the
private residence of Lieutenant-Major M. D. A. Forbes Wels, the Dutch Deputy Chief of
Staff. On arriving home, Forbes Wels' son opened the telegram expecting a congratulatory
message for passing his exams; instead, he read two words: api api (Malay for "fire"). He
handed the message to his father who infonned the Minister of War, Nicolaas Bosboom, of
an impending threat of European war. By this time, news of the Serbian rejection of the
ultimatum and the mobilisation of its troops had also reached The Hague. Within hours, the
govennnent issued the first mobilisation telegram and prepared the country for war. It
recalled Snijders from his holiday and Queen Wilhelmina urged her mother to return
home. 4
On 28 July, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. 5 In support of its Slavic
neighbour, Russia pre-mobilised in response. The Dutch fonnally announced their
neutrality two days later. Gennany, interpreting the Russian moves as threatening, declared
war on Russia on 1 August, the same day the Dutch mobilised their armed forces. 6 Europe
was now set on self-destruction, as the German declaration of war on Russia made it all but
unavoidable that its ally, France, would join the conflict, followed soon after by their
Entente partner, Britain. On 3 August, Gennany declared war on France; its armies invaded
Luxembourg, and prepared to do the same to Belgium in implementation of the revised
3 Much of the following information regarding the api api telegram is based on extensive research by Hubert P. van
Tuyll: "Inside Knowledge: API-API"; "The Dutch Mobilization" pp. 733 - 735; The Netherlands and World War I
pp. 58 - 70. See also: A. W olting, "De eerste jaren van de Militaire Inlichtingendienst (GS III. 1914 - 1917)" [The
first years of the Military Intelligence Service (GS III. 1914 - 1917)] Militaire Spectator. 134, 1965, pp. 566 - 571;
Engelen, De Militaire Inlichtillgell Dienst pp. 21 - 22.
4 Fasseur, Wilhelmina p. 495.
5 See: Appendix 4, pp. 453 - 454, for the timetable of events that led Europe into war in August 1914.
6 There is considerable debate on the origins of the Great War and the respective parts played by Russia and Germany
in it, which is far too detailed and complex to go into in this thesis.