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

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national security. It was a clear signal of support from the business community for the
proposed legislation. The land storm laws were passed, albeit not in the form in which they
were originally proposed. When Bosboom suggested revising the landstormwet in 1915, he
hoped to obtain extra troops.50 Nevertheless, parliament legislated that landstormers were
only to be used as replacements for soldiers going on leave, rather than as additional troops
to those already mobilised, and that the land storm should consist of younger men (less than
30 years old) so that older mobilised conscripts could return home.
Between its proposal and acceptance into law, the purpose of the landstorm
amendment underwent a fundamental change, an illustration of the growing divide between
military and civilian expectations. On the one hand, High Command wished for a
considerable increase in military commitment because it wanted to keep the Netherlands as
defensible as possible. On the other, many civilians (including MPs) believed that the war
situation, as it was in mid-1915, warranted a substantial decrease in the mobilisation
commitment, because the threat of invasion seemed to have passed. Where High Command
saw the landstorm changes as an opportunity to increase the size ofthe Army, many MPs
saw the laws as superfluous, except if they could guarantee better leave provisions for
already mobilised soldiers, most of whom had been in service for nearly a year. The
government, stuck between two diverging demands, compromised: while more men could
be conscripted into the landstorm, this could only occur if the oldest intakes of mobilised
landweer went on indefinite leave. ill other words, the new conscripts would act as
replacements for, rather than additions to, present troop concentrations.
The compromise created many more problems than it actually solved. Firstly,
although the laws gave parliament something that it wanted, it came at the cost of alienating
many citizens. Men between the age of20 and 30, who had happily avoided military
service, were now far from pleased at the prospect of conscription. Exceptions for brother
service or kostwinnaarschap were not made in the land storm and after June 1918, the
armed forces could recall individuals for military inspections whenever they wished. 51 As
the war continued, it became more likely that all men in their twenties would be required to
serve. Secondly, having given in to demands for landweer leave, the government came
under even more pressure to do the same for the oldest military intakes. This was done in
50 De Landstorm Uitbreidingp. 3.
51 Circular from the Minister of War to all mayors, 7 August 1915, in Ibid. p. 74; Staatsblad. no. 429, 20 June 1918.