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

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INTERNED GOODS
Based on the international principle that a neutral state could not be used to supply
a belligerent with war materials, all military equipment belonging to a warring party had to
be interned when it reached neutral territOly. 129 This meant that alongside interning soldiers,
the Dutch armed forces captured and interned all accompanying weaponry and equipment.
Likewise, any war matelials that somehow found their way into the Netherlands, including
warships, aeroplanes, stranded mines, even combatants' horses, were liable for
internment. 130
Everything had to be catalogued, carefully stored, and, in the case of horses, fed,
housed, exercised and watered. The items were stockpiled in military warehouses in
Geertruidenberg and Delft. 131 The horses were a little harder to accommodate. Troops
looked after most of the animals in large stables in Utrecht and Breda. 132 At the end of the
war, the Netherlands was obliged to return the equipment and animals to the nation of
origin, although the belligerents were obliged to pay for the upkeep of the goodS. 133 Troops
also had to carefully guard interned goods, especially aeroplanes, in case of espionage.
Gennany believed, correctly as it turned out, that the Allies would learn about its aircraft
design by spying on interned aeroplanes. 134 Although they proved cumbersome to guard, the
captured aircraft did provide a unique opportunity for the fledgling Air Branch. Over a
hundred foreign aeroplanes, including bombers and seaplanes landed in Dutch territOlY
municipalities of Standdaardbuiten en Zevenbergen and in part of the municipality Rilland Bath situated on the
North-Brabant wall of the East and West Schelde River] 5 May 1920, in ARA, "Archieven van de Generale Star'
entry no. 2.13.70, inventory no. 708.
128 Chapter 12, pp. 433 - 436, looks at the crossing of 50,000 German soldiers through Limburg out of Belgium in
November 1918, and why the Dutch did not intern the troops.
129 Vandenbosch, The Neutrality of the Netherlands p. 165.
130 See: Vries, "Nederland als non-belligerente natie" for a long list of Belgian goods interned during the war
(Appendix IX, p. 132).
131 Lieutenant-General Forbes Wels to Commander-in-Chief, 17 October 1914, in ARA, "Archieven van de Generale
Star' entry no. 2.13.70, inventory no. 75; Vandenbosch, The Neutrality of the Netherlands p. 161.
132 Utrecht en de Oorlogstoestalld p. 137; Susanne Wolf, "Gaasterland" draft section for a chapter in her Ph.D. thesis,
May 2000; Roodt, Oorlogsgasten p. 26.
133 Article 12 of"1907 Hague Convention V" in Roberts. et. al. (eds.), Documents 011 the Laws of War p. 64; Minister
of Foreign Affairs to Minister in Charge of the Navy, 13 October 1914, in ARA, "Archieven van de Generale Star'
entry no. 2.13.70, inventory no. 39.
134 Castren, The Present Law of War and Neutrality p. 485.