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

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Committee), the association responsible for safeguarding the standard of living of citizens,
including a large number of soldiers and sailors. Other remembrance medallions had more
limited target groups, such as those of the Nederland Overzee Trustmaatschappij
(Netherlands' Oversea Trust Company, or NOT, a consignee company for imported goods),
or one that recalled the Fuel Commission and its rationing measures. 50
The most tangible and permanent symbols of remembrance were monuments.
There were a number of these built in the 1920s, although by no means as many as in the
former combatant nations. A recent booklet distributed by the Western Front Association of
the Netherlands listed sixteen monuments and a similar number of plaques for the entire
country.51 This is barely one memorial per 420,000 citizens in 1919, a very small number
when compared to France's 30,000 Great War monuments (one per 1,320 people) or to the
1,500 monuments built in the Netherlands after 1945. 52 That Great War public shrines were
constructed at all, however, does indicate that many in the Netherlands believed the war
was worth commemorating and merited raising money.
One of the most important monuments is the mobilisation memorial on the
Scheveningen beachfront in The Hague. Officially unveiled by the Queen on 20 September
1921, it acknowledged the contributions made to the country's safety by the armed forces
between 1914 and 1918. 53 The funds for its design and erection were collected from public
donations by the organisations Ons Leger and Onze Vloot in co-operation with The Hague's
50 W. K. F. Zwierzina, "Penningen betrekking hebbende op de Nederlandsche koopvaardijvloot tijdens den
wereldoorlog" [Medals which relate to the Dutch merchant fleet during the world war] in Hoogendijk (ed.), De
Nederlandsche Koopvaardij in den Oorlogstijd pp. 426 - 429.
51 Western Front Association Nederland, 1914 - 1918 In Nederland Tastbare Herinneringen. [1914 - 1918 in the
Netherlands. Tactile memories] Utrecht: W.F.A. Nederland, 1991.
52 The population figure for the Netherlands in 1919 was 6,841,155 (H. W. C. Bordewijk, "War Finances in the
Netherlands, 1918 - 1922: The Costs of the War" in Greven (ed.), The Netherlands and the World War Volume IV p.
105); Ken Inglis "Men, Women and War Memorials" in John Lack (ed.), Anzac Remembered. Selected Writings by
K. S. Inglis. Melbourne: History Department, The University of Melbourne, 1998, p. 98. The population figure for
France in 1914 is 39,601,509 (Philip J. Haythornthwaite (ed.), The World War One Source Book. London: Arms and
Armour, 1992, p. 382). By 1980,1,500 monuments were dedicated to World War Two in the Netherlands (Elsbeth
Locher-Scholten, "Van Indonesische urn tot Indisch monument: vijftig jaar Nederlandse herinnering aan de Tweede
Wereldoorlog in Azie" [From Indonesian urn to Indian monument: fifty years Dutch commemorations to the Second
World War in Asia] Bijdragen en Mededelingen Betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden. 114, no. 2,1999, p.
194).
53 The monument still stands close to the Kurhaus on Scheveningen beach. See: Kooiman (ed.), De Nederlandsche
Strijdrnacht p. 735; Neeve et. al. (eds.), Nationale Bond "Het Mobilisatiekruis" p. 223; "Gedenkteeken voor Leger
en Vloot, aan de Boulevard te Scheveningen. Mobilisatie 1 Augustus 1914" [Memorial for Army and Navy, on the
Boulevard in Scheveningen. Mobilisation 1 August 1914] Gemeenteraad 192111932 [Municipal council records
192111932], Haags Gemeentearchief [The Hague Municipal Archives].