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

- Chapter 4 -
Calm Amidst the Raging Waves:
Defending Neutrality
Maintenance of our neutrality and defence against every breach
of our territory ... is the first and foremost goal and reason for
the existence of our mobilisation
General C. j Snijdersl
In 1918, Queen Wilhelmina's only child, nine-year-old Crown Princess Juliana,
received a Jan van Oort painting as a gift. Inscribed "saevis tranquillus in undis" (calm
amidst the raging waves), the watercolour depicted a beautiful urn bobbing in rough
breakers. A colourful kingfisher flew around the urn, weaving through the tempestuous
waves as if attempting to save the vase from possible doom. According to the historian
Cees Fasseur, the painting spoke to the royal family of their country's precarious plight in
the Great War? The use of the kingfisher was significant; it not only referred to the royal
House of Orange (a favoured emblem of William the Silent), but in Roman mythology, the
bird was also said to possess magical abilities of calming the waves. In other words, Van
Oort alluded to the important role played by the Queen and her family in keeping the
Netherlands neutral. By association, the painting also referred to other "protectors" of
neutrality serving the crown. Of these, the Dutch Army and Navy were most important,
assigned with the task of maintaining safety and security (the "calm") while the calamities
of war and the actions of warring states ("the raging waves") threatened to engulf the
nation.
1 "[H]andhaving onzer onzijdigheid en afweer van elke schending van ons gebied. Dat is trouwens het eerste en
voornaamste doel en de reden van bestaan onzer mobilisatie" (Commander-in-Chiefto the Cabinet, "Nota ter
beantwoording van de Nota dd. 11 Juli 1918, door den toenmalige Minister van Oorlog JHR. DE JONGE gericht aan
den Raad van Ministers" 3 October 1918, in ARA, "Archieven van de Generale Staf' entry no. 2.13.70, inventory no.
5).
2 Fasseur, Wilhelmina pp. 502 - 503.