In this cartoon Raemaekers endeavours to bring home to his compatriots
one lesson of the War. That as human nature now is--and especially
German in-human nature--the only guarantee, not necessarily of peace
but of life, for the smaller nations on the borders of the German
Empire is the provision of a force sufficient to give pause to wanton
aggression.
A large and more efficient Army might not have saved Belgium. It would,
however, possibly have diverted the German advance to another quarter.
It would undoubtedly have gained much valuable time for the Allies in
their fight for the cause of freedom and the preservation of small
nations.
Of the importance of a large and efficient Army to Holland at the
present juncture there can be no question. Germany in retreat may
invade the territory of the gallant little nation of free people,
whose history is a glorious and eloquent plea for their continued
existence as a separate nation, unless they are prepared to offer
effective resistance. Often the dying throes of a wild beast involve an
unexpectedly wide area in destruction. And if Germany wins, Holland may
make up its mind to becoming an appendage of the Hunnish Empire.
That this is realised by the more thoughtful and prescient Dutch no one
who knows them doubts; but the wave of prosperity in war time which
Holland has experienced may serve to dull the apprehension of the less
suspicious and far-sighted of her people.
With the case of the Belgian refugees before their eyes one may hope
that the lesson may strike home. Indeed, we cannot believe that the
wrongs of Belgium will be readily forgotten.
The central figure of the cartoon is not less eloquent because the
despair that is written upon the face is less emotional than that of
the girl and woman, or even the little boy. But it grips. Wisdom, too
often, alas! is purchased only with the bitter coin of experience.