The Dutchman who could see this cartoon and not admit its simple truth
would have to be a very blind pro-German. At present time it pays
Germany to pretend a friendship for Holland, but the premeditated murder
of Belgium is a plain object-lesson of the sort of friendship and
agreement that Germany makes with a country and people which stand in
her way and are too small to withstand her brute force. Can any Dutchman
doubt what would be Holland's fate if Germany emerged even moderately
victorious from this war? The German War Staff would give a good deal to
have the control of Holland and a free passage to the sea from Antwerp.
They refrain from using force to gain that control only because they
cannot afford to have a fresh frontier to guard and because it is quite
useful to have Holland neutral and a forbidden ground and water to the
Armies and Navies of the Allies, a shield over the heart of Berlin and
Germany. It would pay the Germans to have Holland with them and openly
against the Allies, and they would no doubt gladly make an "agreement"
to that effect; but there is little likelihood of that as long as the
Dutch can visualize the "agreement" as clearly as the cartoonist has
done here.
There are many people who for years past have suspected Germany's
sinister designs on the whole of the Netherlands. The brutal ravaging of
Belgium, the talk that already runs, openly or in whispers, in Germany
of "annexation of conquered territories" and "extended borders," tell
plainly the same tale--that any agreement between a small country and
Germany means merely the swallowing-up of the small nation, the
"agreement" of a meal with the swallower-up.