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

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soil instead. 162 For the maintenance of Dutch neutrality, the fence had many advantages as
well. Despite the hazards involved, it made prevention of smuggling in the south easier and
kept spies from crossing the border as often as they might have done otherwise.
CENSORSHIP AND PUBLIC OPINION
One of the many ways in which nations during the Great War sustained popular
support of the war effort was by policing the information reaching them and censoring any
damaging news or opinions. By controlling the information in newspapers and magazines,
public perceptions of the war could be altered or maintained and their support of the war
could be fostered. 163 In the combatant nations, censorship was severe. All printed matter
relating to the war had to pass through strict censorship controls before publication,
although, as Niall Ferguson pointed out, the institutions that existed to undertake censorship
were often inefficient. 164 In the Netherlands, censorship did occur, but involved completely
different criteria. Whereas in warring countries, information about the relative strength and
positions of annies, details of warfare, accounts of battles, and even reports on food
shOliages could be purged or altered, in the Netherlands censorship existed to preserve
neutrality. Newspapers could easily provide accounts of the operations of foreign annies,
but could not pass judgement on the merits of each belligerent's war cause, or profess
favour or disgust at the actions of one side or the other. They had to be impartial. This was
true of other neutral states as well. For example, the Swiss government felt obliged to
suspend some newspapers during the war and appealed to the public to remain neutral. 165
Early in August 1914, Queen Wilhelmina urged her subjects to remain entirely
impartial in the war. The government reiterated her plea in posters circulated around the
country, declaring that it was the duty of all citizens to preserve neutrality, and refrain from
publicly supporting one or other belligerent. 166 One "state of siege" commander went so far
as to demand that residents, including a number of Belgian refugees, refrain from wearing
162 Roodt, Oorlogsgasten p. 343.
163 J. M. Winter, "Propaganda and the Mobilization of Consent" in Strachan, The Oxford Illustrated History of the
First World War p. 216.
164 Ferguson, The Pity of Warp. 215.
165 The Times HistOlY of the War. Volume 13, p. 223.
166 Minister President and the Minister of War to all Provincial Governors, 11 August 1914, in SMG/DC,
"Mobilisatieverslag" 91A/3.