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

- 33 -
The inability to keep up with their neighbours applied equally to the human:
strength of the military. Chapter 10 acknowledges how the Dutch could not produce the
mass conscript annies needed to fight and win in this war. It also introduces the notion that
part of the problem was a decisive lack of public willingness to support the military in its
drive to increase the size and strength of the Army. The chapter is devoted to the issue of
demobilisation, an extremely popular political agenda during the war years, and illustrative
of the polarisation between the expectations and opinions of the military and civilian
leadership. Of course, the ability of a nation to stay neutral relied heavily on the willingness
of its people to support that neutrality in all its fonns.
The crises of 1918, the year in which the neutrality difficulties discussed in the
previous ten chapters collide, receive exclusive attention in Chapters 11 and 12. The
Netherlands faced social tunnoil in 1918 due to a severe lack of foodstuffs and coal, war
weariness, and the Spanish influenza pandemic. A wave of "anti-militarism" spread through
the country at the same time as the Dutch govennnent faced its severest test of non­
belligerency yet. Its actions and those of the anned forces during this year demonstrate that
the nation's primary aim was no longer upholding neutrality, but staying out of the war at
whatever cost. The costs involved, however, were high and included the loss of
international independence and the well-being of citizens. It also included a series of
military mutinies and the forced resignation of the Commander-in-Chief of the Anned
Forces. It is in the final chapter that the price of staying neutral become all too clear, as does
the realisation that the Armistice came none too soon for the Dutch nation.