Abstract
In view of their long attachment to the policy of neutrality, it is surprising that there was so little opposition among the Dutch to joining the League of Nations. The step was not taken, however, without grave misgivings. The Dutch attitude was graphically described by Foreign Minister van Karnebeek in reply to a member of parliament who had spoken of the act as a jump in the dark: “When there is darkness and a jump must be made into it, the question which this assembly must answer is: is it not better to jump with than without the League?”
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Note
Handelingen, Eerste Kamer, 1922-23, pp. 670-71.
Ibid, 1916-17, pp. 282, 382; Handelingen, Tweede Kamer, 1916-17, pp. 1212-17, 1239.
In reference to Art. 16, cl. 3 of the Covenant.
For the debates in the Second Chamber see Handelingen, Tweede Kamer, 1919-20, pp. 1310-84.
The Belgian demands for a revision of the Treaties of 1839 were undoubtedly an important factor in this consideration.
Handelingen, Tweede Kamer, 1921-22, pp. 1458-62
Handelingen, Eerste Kamer, 1921-22, pp. 1020-21.
Ibid, 1921-22, pp. 670-71.
Professor Anema declared in the First Chamber that the aim of the Netherlands should not be to increase the powers of the League of Nations as quickly as possible, but on the contrary not to permit its power to grow more rapidly than its juridical structure. Better a weak League of Nations than a powerful one not controlled by justice. Ibid, 1922-23, pp. 668-69.
Representatives of the northern neutrals met in The Hague in 1920 to discuss the organization and jurisdiction of the proposed Permanent Court of International Justice.
League of Nations, Records of the First Assembly, Meeting of the Committees, II, p. 261.
Handelingen, Eerste Kamer, 1922-23, pp. 689-90.
May 18, 1923. Among the signers were: Colijn, Dresselhuys, Idenburg, Koolen, Rutgers, Schokking and Anema (all members of parliament); Professors van Eysinga, Oppenheim and Van Vollenhoven and representatives of the business world.
White Book, Verslag van de Nederlandscde delegatie nopens de Eerste Zitting der Conferentie tot Verminderung en beperking der bewapeningen gehouden te Genève, 2 Februari-23 Juli, 1932. Overgelegd door den Minister van buitenlandsehe zaken aan de beide Kamers van de Staten-Generaal, October 1932. See also the article “Ontwapening en veiligheid” by V. H. Rutgers in Internationale vraagstukken van dezen tijd Rutgers was a Netherlands representative on the disarmament preparatory commission and chairman of one of its subcommittees.
See Oud, Het jongste verleden, II, Ch. 5, for an interesting discussion of the debate on the naval bill by a member of the Second Chamber.
Handelingen, Tweede Kamer, 1923-24, p. 265.
Oud, Het jongste verleden, III, Ch. 7.
Statement is to be found in League of Nations, Official Journal, Special Supp. No. 154, p. 19.
Handelingen, Berste Kamer, 1936-37, p. 393.
Ibid, 1936-37, pp. 392-94. For an interesting account of the parliamentary debates on the foreign policy of this period see Het jongste verleden by Oud, V, Ch. 11. Mr. Oud was an influential member of the States-General.
Address to the Second Chamber on November 30, 1937. Handelingen, Tweede Kamer, 1937-38, pp. 519-20.
Foreign Minister van Kleffens maintained that membership in the League of Nations “was not a deviation from its fundamental policy of no entanglements… When … the League of Nations was founded … [it] … promised to be universal in character … Far from breaking with the country’s well-established policy of no political collaboration with any specific power or group of powers, adherence to the League was no more than a new manifestation of that policy: the pursuit of the highest possible degree of security. Collective security was to take the place of ‘no entanglements.’ It was a change of methods, not of ends… There would be no question of members being drawn into the orbit of any one particular power or group of powers.” Juggernaut over Holland, p. 7.
Handelingen, Eerste Kamer, 1939-40. p. 172.
The League of Nations was made a subject for study in the secondary schools in 1926. This was done by Vincent H. Rutgers, many times a member of the Netherlands delegation to the Assembly of the League, when he was Minister of Education.
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© 1959 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Vandenbosch, A. (1959). League of Nations Policy. In: Dutch Foreign Policy Since 1815. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6809-0_13
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