In the picture opposite the best elements of the great cartoonist’s
genius have full scope. One has the biting satire, the humour and the
extraordinary gift of representing facial expressions with an economy
of line reminding one of some of the best work of the late Phil May,
that prince of humorous British caricaturists.
Raemaekers does not spare even his own countrymen when he discovers a
situation inimical to the welfare of the Allied cause, or one which
involves an obvious absurdity.
Here we have such a situation. In the early days of the War of far
greater frequency than at present, thanks to the ever tightening
“strangle hold” of the British Fleet. There can be no doubt that for
many months Holland (greatly to her material gain) turned herself into
a conduit pipe for the supply of contraband of War to the Central
Empires and more especially to Germany. Daily there were scenes such as
that depicted, though possibly veiled with some thin veneer either of
legality or subterfuge.
Dutch peasants (as well as the agents of the rich merchants and the
resident German smugglers) of all ages and grades flocked to the
frontier figuratively if not literally to drop their bags of contraband
over the slenderly marked line which divides Holland from Germany.
On the faces of the smugglers one sees the grin of satisfaction and
the smug recognition of the truth of the ancient saw, “It’s an ill
wind that blows nobody any good.” They are all doing their little
bit--though strictly neutral, of course--to keep the Huns alive, to
provide the means of killing the soldiers of the Allies, and--at the
same time are adding to that “nest egg” which is so dear to the Dutch
heart.
At the frontier line are two soldiers. The Dutch guard with a stolid
appearance in his back, and with a look of detachment and bland
unconsciousness of what is going on behind it, discoverable even on the
small portion of his face that is visible. On the other side of the
frontier stands the Hun guard smiling sardonically at the Dutch ideas
of neutrality, and the eagerness with which the people of the land he
covets, and hoped to take, play his game.