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

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denying the event, although some had published eyewitness reports on 5 August. 75 The
general population in Belgium and France, however, remained unconvinced and many of
their officials steadfastly held that Gennany had traversed Limburg on 4 August, even if the
Dutch had not welcomed the transgression. 76 It seemed, at least to many Allied citizens, to
explain how the Gennans were able to advance so speedily through Belgium. Few could
believe that the Liege fortifications could have succumbed to the Gennan onslaught as
quickly as they did. The Limburg explanation was a more believable alternative.
There is much to be said, therefore, for the claim of the historian, Paul Moeyes,
that "there can be no doubt" that a patrol of Gennan cavalry crossed through a small part of
Limburg on 4 August. 77 It is likely, however, that the violation was unintentional, and
absolutely certain that the Dutch had no foreknowledge about it. The uproar it caused
stressed to the Dutch how important patrolling the borders actually was. It is significant,
however, that even after the Limburg incident, border guards continued to give individual
foreign soldiers the benefit of the doubt if they accidentally stepped onto Dutch soil.
Officially, all foreign military personnel had to be interned. It was a clear indication that
strict neutrality sometimes gave way to daily practicality.
The Vaals incident did not disappear and continued to trouble Dutch diplomats,
especially when their French counterparts claimed, later in 1914, that they had further proof
of the neutrality violation. In the notebook of a captured Gennan cavalry officer, the French
had found written details of the route taken on 4 August, including the road near Vaals. The
Dutch government continued to profess innocence and this time asked the Commander-in­
Chief to investigate the matter. An officer in GS III took charge of the enquiry, interviewing
border guards, locals, customs officers, and the mayor of Vaals. His report, sent to the
Allied governments, asserted that no one had witnessed the event, that the geography of the
area did not lend itself to troops (especially cavalry) passing through, and he could not
75 Moeyes, Bliiten Sehot p. 84 - 85; According to Paul Moeyes, De Nieuwe Courant printed an anonymous eyewitness
account on 5 August 1914 (Private correspondence, 22 August 2001).
76 Stijn Streuvels, Belgian author, diary entry 20 September 1914 (In Oorlogstijd. Het volledige dagboek van de
Eerste Wereldoorlag. [In wartime. The complete diary ofthe First World War] Brugge and Nijmegen: Orion and B.
Gottmer, 1979, p. 147).
77 Moeyes, Bliiten Sehot p. 85.