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

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Illustration 11: The stock of steel helmets
This cartoon, which appeared in De Roskam in June 1916, jests with B osboom' s statement: "The stock of steel
helmets is not yet satisfactory" ("De voorraad van stalen helmen is nog wei niet voldoende")
(Source: H. AmersfoOlt, L. L. Doedens, Spot op de L{fl1cilJl{fcht. HOllciercija{fr politieke prenten Ol'er het Nederlalldse legeI'. [Mocking the land
forces. Hundred years of political prints about the Dutch Army] The Hague: Sectie Militaire Gcschiedenis, Sdu-uitgeverij, 1991, p. 26)
The Anny bore the brunt of many jokes for its supply inadequacies. Gas mask and
steel helmet shortages proved pmiicularly easy targets for cmioonists. Nonetheless,
undemeath the comedy, there was a fundamentally serious message: the Netherlands, like
so many small nations without a strong industrial capacity, could not keep up with the
military productivity ofthe big powers. As a result, its defensibility eroded and the
feasibility of its neutrality plummeted accordingly. It walTanted a serious warning from
Snijders to cabinet ministers in December 1916:
The supply of our anny with war material is at present, 29 months after the
mobilisation, still largely unsatisfactory and will, if the Netherlands is pulled
into the war, lead to great disappointment, yes, almost celiainly, to disasters. 58
58 "De voorziening van ons leger met oorlogsmaterieel is thans, 29 maanden na de mobilisatie, nog in hooge mate
onvoldoende en zal, wanneer Nederland in den oorIog mocht worden betrokken, tot groote teleurstelling, ja, bijna
zeker, tot ramp en leiden." (Commander-in-Chiefto the cabinet, December 1916, p. 1, in ARA, "Archieven van de
Generale Star' entry no. 2.13.70, inventory no. 3).